An Unlikely Friend
by Drakanen
Summary: In a world where dragons dominate almost all of the land, the last piece belonging to high tech humans, what will happen when some dragons and humans meet and become good friend? Will peace come between the two races? Or will nothing change?


Before you start, let me say each "chapter" is either the scene changing or a different character's POV (Point Of View) in _ONLY_ this part. The characters point of view is usually specified in the first sentence. Each part will be written differently, such as each will be a different POV. This one I will be changing between different characters POVs and I won't be doing that in any of the others. The more parts I add the better they will become I hope. This part isn't nearly as good as the one I'm currently writing incase you don't really like this part. This part was mainly just an experiment, like a jump starter, to help get me worked up for writing this. Incase you have trouble speaking some of their names, (a certain one I know you will so I gave him a nickname without any accents on it), just ignore the accent as it barley makes a difference if any.

_An Unlikely Friend_

_Prologue_

It was a dark, stormy night. Rain was pouring everywhere as Alek was running in the valley. A roar echoed from above, as a big shadow flew over him. He had just found some necklace in a cave when he was walking home from his hiking trip, when he heard a roar from the cave that he just left. When he had heard the roar he realized he had just stolen from a dragon's stash.

He had turned around to apologize and return the stolen necklace when a fireball exploding at his feet causing him to turn tail and run. Alek had just entered a narrow valley when the dragon flew above him, looking for him. He stood there, back against the wall as he held his breath, hoping he had escaped his foe. Sighing, he began to exit the valley, hoping to get as far away as possible. Not even ten seconds after he left it, the dragon landed in front of him, a claw clenching Alek's body.

_Chapter 1_

"So, what do we have here?" he said as he lifted Alek up with his claw. Trembling in fear, Alek said "S-sorry Mr. Dragon sir, I didn't know it was yours." The dragon just stared at him, spooking Alek out as he stared into its dark, black, lifeless eyes. "You really think I was after you because you took some other dragons treasure?" he laughed. "B-but I don't understand!" whimpered Alek.

The dragon just stared at him, curiosity in his eyes. The dragon put him on the ground, whilst wrapping his tail around him in such a way that it trapped Alek with the dragon. "I wasn't chasing you for the treasure, no; I was chasing you for the entertainment, as I've been quite bored recently. All the knights have been too scared to come out lately." said the sad dragon. "Well, if you've had your fun, I would like to leave now." stammered Alek.

"No, no, you can't leave! You're quite interesting to be with" said the dragon. "What do you mean?" asked a confused Alek. "Well, you see, all other humans I've met before have all been too scared to talk to me really, and the ones who were brave enough to talk just wanted to yell at me for getting them all dirty..." said the dragon, mumbling at the last part. "But you, on the other hand, are much more fun to be with and not boring at all. Id like to spend a day with you to lay off the boredom if I may." said the suddenly polite dragon, as he moved his tail away from alek.

"Well, you don't seem like a bad guy, uhh...if you don't mind me asking, what's your name?" said Alek, a little scared that he'd upset the dragon. "My names Drãkáñéñ, but my friends call me Drak...if I had any, that is." said a rather depressed Drãkáñéñ. "Well Drak, I think you'd be a rather fun...companion to be friends with" said Alek. "Really? You think so?" said a happy dragon. "Yes, I don't see why you'd be so bad to be friends with" said Alek.

"Well..." said a rather unwilling friend. "Well, what?" asked Alek. "Well…it's because I don't despise humans, like most dragons do, causing them to not like to be with me." said Drak, rather depressingly. Alek happily replied with, "You seem like a wonderful friend to have to me,"

After Alek raised his spirit a little, Drak asked, "Well, would you like to go back to my home and stay until the storm ends?" Having forgotten all about the storm, Alek looked at how drenched he was and said "I'd love to spend the night at your home, Drak" said Alek, meaningfully. Then without asking, Drak picked Alek back up and flew back to his home, sheltering Alek under his black hide as he flew.

_Chapter 2_

After they reached Drak's home, Alek noticed it was not a very big cave, but a rather small one at that. It was located on top of a hill, a rather bad spot as it could be easily smashed. He noticed a small stream of water going through it but other than that, it didn't seem like a nice place to live. "Well, this is my home, not as comfy as I'd like it to be, but it'll have to do" said Drak sadly. "There's food in the back if you'd like some, I'm rather tired so I'll be asleep over here, I'd suggest getting some sleep as well as the storm won't be over for a while and id like you to be energetic so I can play with you all day tomorrow," said a sleepy Drak. "Alright" said Alek. Alek watched as Drak curled up like a cat would and slept.

Alek hadn't had time to get to know what Drak even looked like, so he used this opportunity to look at him. Alek noticed that Drak was about 20 feet long and 10 feet tall when lying down. He had a black coloured hide, with sharp nails on his claws. He blended into the wall so well that if Alek didn't know he wasn't there he wouldn't think anyone lived in that cave. As he followed his rough outline, he reached his head.

He noticed that he was missing some teeth, possibly from a fight with another dragon. He also had a big bite mark on his ear, which made Alek certain he had been in a fight with a dragon before. Alek decided he would ask about that tomorrow after he woke up. Yawning, he realized that he should probably go get some sleep before the next day, when Drak would want to have some fun with Alek. He walked around, looking for something comfortable to sleep on. He found some vines growing on the cave wall and tore them off, walked over to a flat area on the ground and put the vines down to make a soft floor to sleep on, causing him to fall asleep just fine.

_Chapter 3_

When Alek woke up the next morning he had a hard time remembering where he was. As he got up and walked around, he bumped into something while he wasn't paying attention. When he looked at what he bumped into, he saw it was a dragon's tail and jumped back, scared to death. It took him a few seconds to remember what had happened the night before. After he remembered, he calmed down, aware that he wasn't going to be harmed by the dragon in any way.

When he finally recovered from his shock, he went to the entrance of the cave and looked out into the vast valley. He could see the village he grew up in but left because he couldn't make a living there. Seeing the village brought happy memories back, but while remembering the happy memories, he also remembered the horrible memories. One where his mom was killed by a thief when she tried to stop him. Another where he was humiliated by the local kids because he was poor and they were rich.

He suddenly remembered watching his father, fighting off a familiar dragon while trying to defend his son, Alek. Alek's father had told him to run away and hide in the cave where they used to meet at all the time. Upon running, he looked back and saw his father get picked up by the dragon's claw and swallowed whole, still alive, so he could be burned alive by the acid inside his stomach. Upon remembering, he got a burning ambition to kill every single dragon he saw. He turned around to go and try to kill Drak while he was sleeping, before he came to his senses, all the time trying to not let his anger betray him.

He had thought Drak was very nice and would never harm anyone on purpose. He then realized why that dragon in his memory was familiar…he looked exactly like Drak! He thought about getting up and killing him right then and there, but a new thought came to him…what if he was wrong? What if it wasn't Drak he was remembering? As he was troubled in his thoughts, Drak had awoken and was walked towards him.

When Alek was about to yell aloud because of his anger, he felt a claw on his shoulder. He turned around to see Drak facing him with a sad face. "Why are you mad?" asked a sad Drak, who hoped he didn't upset him. "I'm not mad…"said Alek. "You sure?" asked Drak. "You seem a little upset" said Drak while indicating that he had torn his shirt in his rage.

Alek noticed that it was, indeed, torn. He looked at Drak with a frown and said "It's just that….my father was killed by a dragon that looks a lot like you." Alek noticed Drak turn away and walked to the other end of the hall, to his small gold stash that was cleverly hidden in a crack, under some vines. Alek watched as Drak pulled something out of the pile and went towards Alek. As he reached Alek, he held it out to him.

Alek looked at the object until he recognized it….it was his fathers sword. The sword he used to defend Alek when he was young. "I'm sorry…" said Drak. Realizing what he mean, Alek got very mad. "YOU KILLED HIM! YOU KILLED MY FATHER YOU VICIOUS BEAST!" yelled Alek. As he tried to impale Drak with his father's sword, Drak just looked at him with sorry eyes, sorry that he killed his father, not noticing what Alek was doing until it was too late.

_Chapter 4_

As Alek impaled Drak's leg, Drak jumped back, roaring in pain. Alek ran at him, anger running through his veins; bring his sword down on his other leg, planning to make his death slow and painful, oh so very painful. As Alek struck Drak in his other leg, Drak used his wing to try

to block his next hit, but he just helped Alek instead. Alek had planned to attack his wing to prevent his ability to fly. When he swung at the wrong angle, which would have missed, Drak put his wing in front of him, causing Alek to hit his wing.

Drak felt the sword tear through his wing, causing an immense amount of pain, causing him to faint. After Alex put a giant hole in Drak's wing, Alex planned to cut Drak's head off, and throw it off the cliff, but he saw how sorry and pained Drak was before he fainted and felt bad. Maybe he had a reason to kill Alek's father, but he had attacked before he could explain. Realizing what he had done, Alex stepped back in horror, dropping his father's sword. As he looked at the blood on his hands, his friend, yet his enemy, he realized that he almost killed the closest thing to a friend he ever had, besides his father.

Not wanting to think about the horrible thing he had just committed, he tried to change the subject. Alek thought about his life when he was young, but that just kept making him remember his father, thus remember what he just did. He decided to try to think about himself, hoping that would work better. Alek figured he was at least 5 feet tall and had black hair, if he remembered correctly. He was wearing a brown leather shirt that his grandmother had made for him. His black pants were getting a little short on him, he realized as he could feel a breeze a little above his ankles.

He was turning 19 in a week, which to him meant nothing, as it would just be another day in his poor life. As Alek was thinking about his life, he heard a moan come from Drak. Completely forgetting that he was the reason Drak was in pain, he ran to him and tried to help. He started by talking to him, trying to help his with his pain by making him forget about it. While he was talking, he got some vines off of the ground where he slept and wrapped them around the cut on Drak's leg, hoping to stop the bleeding.

When he tightened the vine, Drak gave a roar of pain, as it extremely hurt. After Alek had stopped all the bleeding, he heard Drak say "Alek…I'm…sorry I killed your father, I didn't want to, but he wasn't letting me reason with him. I just wanted the gold medallion he took away from my stash, but he said he didn't take anything from me. I knew this was a lie, as his scent was all over my cave, especially my stash. So in order to get my treasure back, I had to kill him…" Drak's voice trailed off after saying that, leaving Alek mad at himself for acting so rationally and letting his anger take control of himself without asking why he had killed him.

_Chapter 5_

Alek was staring down into the valley, still feeling guilty even though a week had past. He was still taking care of Drak while he waited for him to wake up. He felt like it was all his fault his only friend was hurt. He had just finished replacing the bandage on Drak's leg (which had almost healed) when he down on a rock. Alek was facing towards the valley, when he heard movement behind him. He looked at Drak and saw that he hadn't moved. There had to be someone (or something) with them. As he tried to discover where the sound came from, it suddenly appeared again to his right. When he turned, what he saw scared him so much, he fell off of the rock where he was sitting.

When he stood up, a fierce looking dragon was in his face, not even a foot away, which caused him to back up, almost falling down the cliff. The dragon before him looked very angry, for a reason Alek didn't know. He was about to ask the dragon what was wrong, when the dragon shouted "HAND IT OVER! NOW!" This scared Alek, as he didn't know what the dragon was talking about, so he asked "hand what over?" Now this caused the dragon to shout even louder "DON'T TOY WITH ME! WHERE DID YOU HIDE IT!?"

Now Alek was freaking out, as the dragon was going to kill him if he didn't hand "it" over soon. The only problem was Alek didn't know what "it" was. A sudden pain in his side brought tears to his eyes, as he realized the dragon had snuck his tail around him and was crushing him. He thought he was going to die when all of a sudden the dragon went hurling out of the cave, taking Alek with him! Suddenly, the dragon let go of Alek in attempt to steady himself. Alek fell to the ground with an "oomph!" and he turned to see what caused the dragon to do that. When he saw Drak awake and dangerous, standing where the other dragon previously was standing, at he knew exactly what had happened.

Alek turned and looked back at the other dragon who was now flying straight at Drak (only seconds away from striking the wounded Drak), when Alek shouted "you mean this thing?" Seeing his treasure, the dragon to stop and look at him, giving Drak time to slice at the enemy dragon's hide, causing the dragon to roar in pain as the slice had dug into his skin. Alek had noticed how deep the slice was and that it caused the new dragon to bleed. He roared in anger and charged straight at Drak. He hit Drak so hard it caused him to fly off the ground and since his wing had healed enough to carry his weight, the other dragon to crashed into the ground, stunning it. Alek watched as Drak took this chance to land on top of him and slice his neck with his claw, while biting his head to further disorientate the enemy dragon. As the dragon began to bleed out, Drak held it down, so it couldn't retaliate. A few minutes later, the dragon laid still, and when satisfied it was dead, Drak got off of the other dragon and dropped to his knees in pain.

_Chapter 6_

When Alek saw Drak in pain, he ran to him to see what was wrong. After a brief look, Alek saw that his leg wound had reopened, probably from being used too much while it was still healing. He heard Drak mumble "stupid dragons, invading my home like that!" Alek felt guilty knowing that he was the reason the dragon attacked, but that didn't matter right now. All that mattered was that Drak fully healed, especially since his leg wound was fresh again.

After Alek stopped the bleeding and wrapped it in new vines, he sat down next to Drak's head. "Drak" said Alek, causing Drak to turn his head towards him. "Why did you save me, even though I tried to kill you?" Drak thought for a while before saying, "you had a reason to kill me but you didn't, and that surprised me. I was sure you'd kill me for killing your father, and when I woke and saw you hadn't killed me, and you were about to be killed by another dragon, I had to save you as a way to pay you back for sparing me." Hearing that made Alek glad he didn't kill his friend, and now his savior. After thinking about what the dragon meant by "hand IT over", Alek remembered that he had taken a necklace from a dragons stash a few nights ago. He reached into his back pocket and pulled it out.

"He attacked me because I took this from his gold stash" said Alek out of nowhere. This startled Drak. Alek showed Drak the necklace and Drak said "No wonder he attacked you, that necklace is really shiny." This made Alek curious. He asked "Do dragons keep treasure because they're shiny?" This startled Drak because he didn't really know why dragons liked to collect treasure. "I guess that's why" said Drak. Alek asked "Wait, so you don't really know why dragons like to collect treasure?" This earned a quick "Yep" from Drak. Alek and Drak talked all night, while Drak's leg healed. Drak noticed how late it was and said "It's gotten late, better get some rest before the sun comes up." Alek nodded in agreement as he was tired as well.

_Chapter 7_

Alek woke up to Drak's snoring and couldn't go back to sleep. He decided to get up and walk around. Alek went to the dead dragon and looked at it. It must have been an adult as its scales were very thick, as well as its tail being sharp and long. His or her teeth were very sharp, so sharp that when he touched them, they made his finger bleed. As he continued looking around, he heard someone move from behind him. When he turned around he saw Drak get up and walk towards him.

"Hey, I don't believe I ever got your name" said Drak. "No, I believe you haven't. My names Alek", said Alek happily. "Say, Alek, where do you live?" asked Drak curiously. "I live down there, at that small house" said Alek as he pointed out the cave, at a small house in the distance. "Shouldn't you return to your home sometime? Something could happen while you're gone!" said Drak.

"There's nothing worth taking in there, so I don't need to worry about stuff being stolen while I'm gone" replied Alek. "Then, do you want to go down to the lake? It feels good this time of year, you know," asked Drak. "Sure, I'd love to go down to the lake!" said Alek happily. "Hop on" said Drak, lowering his wing down so Alek could climb on. "You sure you want me to ride you down there?" asked Alek, not wanting to hurt his reputation with the other dragons, if he had any. "Yes, I'm sure, now come on, we're wasting time!" replied Drak eagerly.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming" said Alek as he climbed onto Drak. "Hold on tight!" said Drak as he jumped in the air and started to fly to the lake. "wow, this is beautiful!" said Alek, amazed at how lovely the lake looked from the air, the water shining brightly, the waves looking like little ripples, gently flowing with the breeze that felt good upon his skin.

_Chapter 8_

As Drak flew to the lake, Alek thought about how much fun they were going to have together, playing in the water. When Drak hit the water, the splash soaked Alek, causing Drak to laugh, and Alek's cheeks to go red a little. "Come on, the waters fine!" said Drak, gently pushed Alek with his tail to try to get him to jump in. After being encouraged enough, Alek jumped into the lake, causing a small splash. Drak smirked, and when Alek noticed his smirk, he asked why he was smirking and "My splash was bigger than yours!" was the reply he got from Drak.

"Since when did the size of the splash matter?" asked Alek. "Since five seconds ago!" laughed Drak. This caused Alek to smirk and say "I can go deeper than you!" as he went a foot under. "Oh please, I can go deeper than that!" said a happy Drak, as he tried to go under but couldn't because he floated. This caused Alek to go above water and say "See? I'm better than you!" "Since when did the need to go underwater happen?" asked Drak.

"Five seconds ago!" mocked Alek, causing them both to smile. Alek and Drak were having so much fun with each other; they didn't even realize what time it was until it was pitch blackout. "Wow, time flies! We better get back and sleep soon" said Drak, causing Alek to nod in agreement.

Instead of lowering his wing and letting Alek climb on, he instead used his tail to pick up Alek and set him on his back. Drak was jealous that Alek beat him in a lot of things, such as: farthest underwater, most mobile, fastest, and many other things. When they got back to his cave, the dead dragon was starting to smell really bad because it was rotting, so Drak pushed it off the edge, taking the smell with it.

"Why didn't we get rid of that darn dragon a while ago?" he asked Alek. "I don't know, we must have forgotten about him" replied Alek. Instead of going where Alek normally slept, he saw Drak curled up in a corner and motioned "Come here" Alek then laid against his side and slept there. Alek was fine with it since his scales were comfier than the rock he usually slept on.

_Chapter 9_

Drak woke up to a noise from outside that reminded him of the dragon he fought earlier, which caused him to wrap himself around Alek to protect him better. As he sat there, watching the entrance, he saw a claw hit the ground.

The claw sat there for a few seconds, before the creature showed itself. Drak recognized it as a female dragon, afraid that it was the mate of the dragon he killed earlier. "Hello? Anyone there?" said the dragon.

Drak remained quiet as he was hidden in the shadows. He watched the dragon as she walked around, making sure she posed no threat. Shortly after, he relaxed again, but still watched her. She laid down, clearly very tired, probably finding a nice, comfortable place to stay, which calmed his nerves. It appeared the female dragon decided no one was there and started to go to sleep.

After she fell asleep, he uncurled himself and carefully let Alek's head lean against a soft rock. He slowly walked over to the female and watched her from a respectable distance. A few hours past and he noticed Alek was still asleep. Drak guessed Alex must have been very tired after swimming so much the other day. Being careful not to awaken the female, Drak moved in front of her, to watch her more carefully. When he was moving over to her front, his tail hit her on accident, which caused her to wake up tiredly and turned towards him.

When the female dragon saw Drak, she freaked out and jumped backwards saying "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude on your lair, I'm so sorry! Please don't kill me!" "It's alright; you were very tired and needed somewhere to rest. Besides, you weren't in the way of anything," replied Drak as nicely as possible, trying to, and failing to avoid blushing. "But, then what about the dead dragon at the bottom of the cliff?" she asked, a hint of fear in her voice. "He tried to kill my friend, you see." said Drak as he pointed toward his friend who was asleep in the corner of the room.

"Oh," said the female, who appeared to be still scared that she might anger the male dragon in some way. "Don't worry, just don't try to harm him and we'll be good friends, alright? Now go on, go back to sleep," said Drak, as nice as possible. "Well, alright, thank you for letting me rest here," replied the female as she fell back asleep. 'Well she scares easily' he thought to himself as he went back over to Alek, and curled around him again, protecting him as much as possible. A few seconds after she fell back asleep, he heard Alek say "So, who's your girlfriend?" Which caused Drak to jump a little as he thought Alek was still asleep.

"What are you talking about? She's not my girlfriend, I don't have the slightest affection for her" he lied. "Oh please, it's very easy to tell you like her, from the look on your face when you first talked to your big blush!" The fact that Alek saw him blush made him turn red a little. "Can we, uh, drop the subject? Please? Friend to friend?" asked Drak, hopefully. "what, you don't like me teasing you?" said Alek jokingly.

"Well, I'd rather not be accused of liking a random dragon that I've met less than a minute ago" stammered Drak. "Alright, alright, you don't need to fuss about it" said Alek, rather apologetically. "Can we drop it now?" whined Drak. "Fine" said Alek, rather disappointingly. He enjoyed messing with him, but felt like he was taking too far. "Thank You" said a tired Drak, as he fell back asleep. Still feeling tired, as Drak had woke him when he got up, Alek fell back asleep.

_Chapter 10_

Ackriá had been flying nonstop for days now, through terrible storms, harsh fights with other dragons as she flew through their land, until she finally found a nice cave that she quickly flew onto, landing on the outside. Not sure if the cave was a dragons lair or not, she put a foot inside to see if she would get yelled at or a fireball blasted at her feet. After a few seconds of nothing happening, she looked inside, searching around to see if the dragon was asleep. Upon seeing no one in the cave, and no gold stashes, she figured no one lived in that cave so she went ahead and slept in the middle of it. As she was asleep, she felt something hit her hide, causing her to wake up.

After she opened her eyes, she saw the dark eyes of another dragon, freaking her out. As she backed up, giving her some space, she exclaimed "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude on your lair, I'm so sorry! Please don't kill me!" and waited for the other dragon to punish her. To her surprise, instead of anger and a beating, she earned a calm voice saying "It's alright; you were very tired and needed somewhere to rest. Besides, you weren't in the way of anything," which caused her to settle down a little, though still afraid as if he might try something. "But, then what about the dead dragon at the bottom of the cliff?" she asked, unnervingly, as if the dragon was easy to anger. "He tried to kill my friend, you see," replied the other dragon as he nodded towards the dark wall.

After squinting and making out a silhouette in the darkness, she exclaimed "Oh…" as she gulped over the fact she might accidentally hurt him and be killed by the much larger dragon. "Don't worry, just don't try to harm him and we'll be good friends, alright? Now go on, go back to sleep," said the other dragon, the tone of which he said it was unnervingly calm, as if he didn't expect her to try anything at all, which she wouldn't as he scared her. "Well, alright, thank you for letting me rest here," she finally said, after thinking for a little about how to say it without giving a hint of rudeness. As she laid down, she closed her eyes and pretended to sleep, to make sure he wouldn't try anything. After a few seconds he heard a new voice pop up from where she heard him go back to.

She heard it exclaim he liked her and him refuse it repeatedly, at the end asking to please drop it. 'So he won't even hurt his friend, no matter how obnoxious his friend is' she thought to herself, a feeling of relief fall over her as he was probably a very nice dragon, not one who faked it to use people like puppets. Upon hearing them both go back to sleep, she fell asleep again also, as she was still very tired when he woke her.

_Chapter 11_

When Ackriá had woken up, she looked around at her surrounding, trying to remember what happened last night. As she noticed the dragon asleep over in the far corner, she remembered the night as if it was a few seconds ago. Curiously, she got up and quietly walked over to him. While she was asleep, she got a good look of him, making sure to note where his weak spots would be if she had to fight him, which she hoped it didn't come to. Remembering he had a friend, who talked to him the other night, she looked at who he was curled up around.

When she noticed his friend was a human, she felt safe, knowing that he must have been a very nice dragon to be friends with a human, yet disgusted he was friends with one. She was about to leave his lair, when she felt that would be very rude, to come in and sleep in someone's home without saying goodbye. She looked toward the entrance of the cave, then back at him, startled as she noticed his eyes was open, causing her to jump a little in fright, head down as if saying sorry. "Hey," she heard the dragon say. "What you doing?" he asked, a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

"I was just...uhh…looking around" she quickly stated. "You sure? You seemed to spend your entire time around here" he replied. The last part spooked her, as it meant he was awake the entire time she was. "What's your name?" asked the other dragon. "Ackriá" she replied after a few seconds. "What's your name?" she asked him. "Just call me Drak" he replied. When she looked back up at him, she noticed he was getting a good look at her, as she had him. When she stared into his eyes, she saw no hint of anger, lust, or evil, just curiosity and wonder.

When she finally mustered enough courage to speak up, she asked "would you mind if I stayed here a little longer?" As if confused by the question, he just stared at her for a while before saying "sure, stay as long as you want, we've got room," said the other dragon. Grateful, she bowed her head, and wandered off, around the cave.

_Chapter 12_

Drak was awake for a few minutes before hearing movement coming from the other end of the cave. He slightly turned his head over to where the female dragon was. He noticed her looking around, then at him. When she looked at him, he quickly shut his eyes, pretending to still be asleep. A few seconds later, he heard her get up and slowly walk towards him, as if she didn't want him to wake up. Upon her reaching him, he felt her breath on him, as she got a good look of him.

When she reached his face, he felt her warm breath on him, causing his nose to tingle. As he felt her breath lift, he opened his eyes a little, and got a good look at her chest, before she looked back at him. She noticed and jumped back in surprise as he scared her. Then, she lowered her head as if giving an apology. "Hey," he asked, wondering what caused her to look at him. "What are you doing?" He asked shortly afterwards. "I was just...uhh…looking around" she quickly stated, a hit of nervousness in her eyes. "You sure? You seem to spend your entire time around here," he asked, knowing she wasn't telling the complete truth.

As if shocked, she just stood there, looking at the ground. "What's your name?" asked the other dragon. "Ackriá" she replied after a few seconds. "What's yours?" she asked shortly after. "Just call me Drak" he replied. While she was looking at the ground, he got a good look at her. She appeared to be 11 feet long, slightly longer than half his size, and 6 feet high. She had a black hide mixed with some red on her legs and arms. When she finally looked up again, she looked straight into his eyes for a few seconds, before asking "would you mind if I stayed here a little longer?"

This startled him, as he didn't think she'd stay once morning came. After thinking for a while, he said "sure, stay as long as you want, we've got room." As if very grateful, the other dragon bowed her head and wandered off around the cave. Drak looked back, half expecting Alek to be awake, but he saw Alek still asleep. He was thankful that Alek hadn't heard their conversation Drak relaxed, knowing he could keep it a secret.

_Chapter 13_

As Ackriá neared the back of the cave, she saw something in the ground. She inspected it more closely and saw it was Drak's pile of gold (and a rather small pile at that), hid cleverly under some vines. 'Smart guy' she thought to herself as she thought about taking some treasure with her. She looked back at him, to see he was asleep again, and slowly reached towards it with her claw. Stopping within inches, she thought 'Should I really? He's been so nice, I'd hate to steal from him,' and she decided against it. She continued walking around the cave for a few hours, noting all possible hiding places in case things got ugly.

When she went back to the main area, she noticed the dragon was still asleep, but his friend was awake and walking around. Upon noticing her, he started to walk towards her. Unsure of what to do, she stood there, confused. "Hey, I'm Alek, what's your name?" said the human, rather happily. "Oh, uh hi, I'm Ackriá" she said, nervously. "You seem rather nice, I thought almost all dragons despised humans?" said Alek.

"Most dragons do hate humans, me included. But you got lucky and found a dragon that actually likes humans" replied Ackriá, trying to act tough as to not look like a weakling. "Then why are you being so nice to me right now" asked Alek, sounding confused. "I...don't actually know why" replied a confused Ackriá. "It's because you're scared of 'him', isn't it," said Alek, emphasizing at the word 'him'.

Realizing who he meant, she quickly stated "What? No! That's not why! I'm not scared of him!" "Then why do you look scared whenever you look at him?" questioned Alek, feeling rather happy at teasing her. "What are you talking about? I don't look scared when I look at him!" she exclaimed, looking at him, a little angry. "Let me rephrase that then, you look scared when he looks at you!" Said Alek, going a little over the top with the teasing. "I'M NOT SCARED OF HIM YOU STUIPID HUMAN!" she shouted, almost screaming. After she said that, she noticed Drak open an eye, causing her to realize what she hand done. She bolted away and hid, scared that he would come kill her for telling at the boy.

_Chapter 14_

Alek was wandering around the cave, waiting for Drak to wake up, when he saw the other dragon standing near a tunnel, staring at him. Upon seeing her, he decided to walk up and meet her. As he walked to her, he noticed her just stand there, as if not knowing what to do. When he reached her, he started out with a simple hello. "Hey, I'm Alek, what's your name?" he stated, rather happy that he'd met another dragon.

"Oh, uh hi, I'm Ackriá" said the female dragon, seeming nervous. Wanting to not let the subject drop, he said "You seem rather nice, thought almost all dragons' despised humans?" "Most dragons hate humans, me included. But you got lucky and found a dragon that actually likes humans" replied the seemingly young dragon. Now this confused Alek, as why was she talking to him if she hated his kind? He decided to ask "Then why are you being so nice to me right now?"

Upon hearing that, Ackriá seemed to just stand there, seemingly confused. "I…don't actually know why" she finally replied. Feeling like teasing her for not knowing, he said "It's because you're scared of 'him', isn't it," said Alek, emphasizing at the word 'him'. Realizing who he meant, she quickly stated "What? No! That's not why! I'm not scared of him!"

Having fun, Alek pressed on with "Then why do you look scared whenever you look at him?" Earning him an angry look with her raising her voice and saying "What are you talking about? I don't look scared when I look at him!" as she proceeded to stare at him, getting angrier by the second. Feeling like she deserved it for hating his kind, he proceeded to tease her with "Let me rephrase that then, you look scared when he looks at you!" Said Alek, not realizing how mad she already was. "IM NOT SCARED OF HIM, YOU STUIPID HUMAN!" she shouted, almost screaming. Looking like she just saw a ghost, she fled to the tunnel, as if her life counted on it. A few seconds later, Drak had reached Alek's side, asking "why was she so mad?" "I might have gone over the top with teasing her…sorry!" replied Alek, a little ashamed. "Great, now I have to go find her!" replied a rather upset dragon. A little scared at the anger in his voice, Alek moved away, watching him go into the tunnels.

_Chapter 15_

Drak had awoken to some very loud shouting, when he saw Ackriá yelling at Alek, who suddenly ran away into the tunnel. Angry at Alek for making her that mad, but mad at her also for yelling at his friend. Walking over to Alek, he asked "why was she so mad?" "I might have gone over the top with teasing her…sorry!" replied Alek, sounding ashamed. "Great, now I have to go find her!" he said, angry at Alek for teasing her so much. Walking past Alek, not sure if he said anything else or not, he went into the tunnel to try and find Ackriá.

As he was looking around the tunnels, he was shouting her name, hoping she'd come out. When he turned the corner, he saw her tail in the sunlight through a hole in the roof. "Hey, Ackriá, what's wrong?" he asked. Hearing no response, he walked closer to where the tail is. As he neared the tail, he saw more of the dragon there and identified the dragon as Ackriá.

"Ackriá, come on, just tell me what's wrong, we can sort this out." said Drak again, calmer this time. A few seconds later, he heard Ackriá say "You're not mad at me?" in a scared voice. "What? No, why would I be mad at you?" Drak asked, sounding confused. "Well, you heard and saw me yell at your friend, I thought that would of made you hate me for being mean to your friend," said a sad voice. "Ackriá, look at me" he said, wanting her to look at him in the eyes.

After a few seconds, she turned her head to face him, crying. "Stop crying Ackriá, you have no reason to be." Drak said as he reassured her. He watched her try to stop crying, but she couldn't stop. "Hey, come on now, its not your fault, he even admitted it was his fault and apologized for making you mad, now please don't cry," he said firmly. Drak noticed her stop crying after hearing that Alek said it was his fault.

When she turned to completely face him, he hugged her, earning a surprised squeal from her. He noticed her hug him back after she appeared to have recovered from the shock. After hugging for about a minute, Drak said "Come on now Ackriá, lets go back." After a few seconds, she replied with "Alright, ill go back," sounding a little sad. As he led her back to the main cave, he noticed Alek sitting on a rock, staring into the valley. Drak motioned for Ackriá to go talk to Alek, as they need to talk about it. Drak watched as Ackriá went over to Alek and started talking with her, as he curled up, and slept.

_Chapter 16_

Alek had walked over to a rock and sat down on it after his little argument with Ackriá. He was staring over the valley, wondering if he should leave and go back to his small house. Just as he was about to leave, he heard Ackriá say "Sorry about earlier, it's just…I lost my temper." Knowing it was his fault, not hers, he said "It's not your fault, it's completely mine, I shouldn't have messed with your feelings." As if she became very glad that he didn't blame her, she asked "can be still be friends?"

Alek sat there in shock, as that surprised him, as he remembered her saying she hated humans. Not wanting to let that thought bother him forever, he asked "I thought you hated humans, why would you want to become friends with one now?" This seemed to shock her, as she sat there for a while, before saying "You taught me to not judge all humans on how the majority act. You taught me that humans can be nice people, who act on their mistakes, so I thought why not be friends with the human who changed my mind about all humans?" Now this shocked Alek, as he didn't think he'd affected her just that much. "Sure, we can be friends. I'm glad I could change your opinion on humans" stammered Alek, as he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Where did you use to live?" said Ackriá, curiously. "I used to live down there" replied Alek, as he pointed towards a small house in the distance. "What made you decide to leave?" asked Ackriá. "Well, when I first met Drak, I decided to stay with him for a while, to see if it was better with him than at home. I mean, sure I've got better stuff at home than here, but I have friends here, people who care about me." said Alek, rather affectingly. "Oh…"said Ackriá, who appeared to be thinking about her life.

_Chapter 17_

Drak was happily sleeping in his lair, when a loud screech came from above. Upon hearing that screech, he woke up, looked for Alek, to find him sleeping against him, and Ackriá to be sleeping in the other corner. Settling down for a little while, he laid his head down on the ground, listening to the loud shrieks of the dragon. About a minute had past when he felt someone behind him. When he turned his head, he saw Ackriá hiding behind him in fear.

"What's wrong?" he asked her. "My old mate, he's come loo-" Ackriá was saying before she was cut off by a loud crash and rocks falling on the cave. Drak noticed the cave starting to collapse, so he grabbed Alek with one of his claws, and flew towards the exit, ready to fight whoever gets in his way, when all of a sudden the rocks above the exit fell, blocking the only exit. He gently put Alek down as he searched for a good spot to hide from. He was about to go look when a bunch of big rocks landed on his leg, trapping him, causing him to roar in pain.

He saw Alek, having woken up to the noise of the rocks falling, trying to lift the rocks off of him, when he gestured for Ackriá to come help him. Even with the help of Ackriá, they couldn't get the rocks off, so Drak was stuck there. "Run, go find a way out, ill be fine!" yelled Drak, trying to be heard over the sound. "We aren't leaving you!" shouted Alek and Ackriá at the same time. "If you don't try to leave, you'll die!" yelled Drak, his voice filled with concern. "If you're going to die, we're going to die with you!" yelled Ackriá. Drak was glad that he friends wouldn't leave him to die, yet concerned for their own safety as well. Drak was about to try to get them to go, when a rock hit him on the head, knocking him out cold.

_Chapter 18_

Drak woke up, feeling dizzy, as he tried to get up, but couldn't as he remembered what happened during the night. He started to freak out, worrying about Alek and Ackriá, when he felt something brush his wing. Drak couldn't turn his head, as so many rocks were on top of him; he was surprised he wasn't dead. "Hey…" Drak said weakly, hoping they would hear him if they were there. "Drak? You're alive!" shouted a happy Alek. "Alek! I'm glad you're ok! Where's Ackriá?" said Drak, happy. There was a moment of silence, before Alek said "She's alive, but she took a good size rock to the head, bigger than the one that hit you." Worried about Ackriá, but unable to do anything, Drak was mad at he had let them stay. As if Alek could feel his anger, he said "It's alright Drak; you couldn't have done anything to help." Too mad to think, Drak responded with "YES I COULD HAVE! I COULD HAVE TAKEN THE HIT FOR HER!

SHE WOULD BE JUST FINE IF I WASN'T A WIMP GETTING KNOCKED OUT BY A STUPID ROCK!" "Whoa, Drak, calm down before you hurt yourself, you need to stay calm and try to think of a way to get out of this" Alek said calmly. Drak was filled with anger at himself for not being able to help her, but he knew Alex was right. He had to stay calm or none of them may make it out alive.

'At least Ackriá was still alive and not dead' he thought to himself, hoping to brighten his spirits. When Drak remembered the night before, he remembered his leg getting smashed, along with his head getting mauled by a rock. Remembering about his leg caused him to try to move it. As he tried to move it, he barley sustained enough strength to not roar in pain. After waiting a few seconds, Drak asked "How bad is my leg?" even though he didn't want to hear the answer.

About a minute later, he heard Alek say "Does it hurt to move? If it does, you might have broken it." The thought of his leg being broken hurt Drak as he would be defenseless, unable to protect his friends, his family, if he had to. Not wanting to think of his leg any longer, Drak asked "How did you survive anyways?" Drak could feel Alek shift uncomfortably upon hearing that question.

After a few seconds he heard Alek say "After you were knocked out by the rock, we decided it best to…hide under your wing, as it would provide protection. The only problem was getting your wing above us, as it was quite heavy. Me and Ackriá, we had to put your wing on her back while I pulled. If you were awake during this, it might have caused an incredible amount of pain, and right now I try to not touch your wing as we might have torn a muscle." Now this frightened Drak, as if he couldn't use his wing, he would be useless in every manner.

Braced for pain, Drak tried to move his left wing, but to no avail as it was trapped under a heap of rocks. Knowing that was not the wing Alek was talking about, Drak braced even harder for pain as he moved his right wing. He felt little pain from moving it, although it startled Alek. 'Must be a little bruised, besides it probably did get hit with a lot of rocks,' Drak hopefully thought to himself.

Together, they sat there, waiting for an opportunity to get free of the newly made tomb. It seemed like hours had pasted until Drak, with his sensitive hearing, heard another dragon flying about outside the burial. Hoping to get its attention, Drak let out a plea of help, loud enough for dragons within half a mile to hear, but not too loud to make everyone with him deaf. As he waited, he felt pain on his wing, as something bumped it, causing him to roar in pain. After roaring, he tried to breath, but realized he was running out of air since there was no air gap. He soon fainted from not being able to breathe.

_Chapter 19_

Kzichom was flying around, hoping to find a new lair before the winter storm approached when he heard a plea of help somewhere below him. Curious, as to know what dragon would need help, he flew down to where he heard the plea from. Intently listening, he hoped to hear the plea again, as to make sure he wasn't going insane. After a few seconds of waiting, he heard it again. This time, it was right under him, as if the dragon was buried.

Letting out a sound to tell the other dragon he was here, Kzichom started to lift the rocks off, one by one. After digging for about ten minutes, he saw the tip of a wing. Wanting to let the other dragon know he was going to be fine, he touched the tip with his nose, but instead of a shrill of happiness, he heard a roar of pain. 'Poor guy, must have broken his wing under all this weight' Kzichom thought to himself, as he carefully dug around the wing.

Upon seeing his neck, Kzichom put all his effort to freeing his head, as the dragon must have been suffocating by now since there were no air gaps. Once he freed his head, Kzichom put his head next to the other dragons, to make sure he was still alive. When he heard breathing, he continued unburying him. As Kzichom unburied the dragons other wing, he noticed another, smaller, female dragon underneath it. Upon looking to see if she was hurt or not, he noticed a human with them.

'They don't hate humans! Maybe I can go with them for a while!' thought Kzichom to himself hopefully, as he was out casted from his original land by the neighboring dragons for not disliking humans. As Kzichom went back to clearing out the rocks from around them, he felt something brush his tail. When he looked back at his tail, he saw he had accidently hit the female dragon with his tail. Noticing he hadn't awoken her, or the human sleeping against her, he continued his work. Once he finished, He laid beside the male dragon, waiting for him to wake up.

_Chapter 20_

Drak woke up aching all over, but not buried anymore. 'Guess that shrill worked' thought Drak thankfully. When he opened his eyes, he saw another dragon in front of him. 'He must have been the dragon who saved me…us…' he happily thought, glad the dragon didn't leave them. Drak took the opportunity to learn what his savior looked like.

Upon looking at him, he guessed he was about 17 feet long and 8 feet high. He had a dark-bluish coloured hide and blue eyes. Unable to see his feet, Drak shifted his head to get a better look at the dragon, when he noticed the dragon watching him. The two dragons stared at each other for a while, before Drak happily said "I guess I have you to thank for rescuing us." He waited patiently, for the other dragon to respond as to not appear rude.

"I'm glad I was able to help another dragon in need, but uh…I have a problem," the mystery dragon replied. "And what would that be? I'm sure we can help you" chirped Drak. "Well you see, the reason I'm over here is because I was recently exiled from my home up in the icy region to the north, by my old mate because I didn't revolt at humans, unlike how she and all the other dragons did," murmured his savior. "So I take it you're looking for a place to stay?" asked Drak, hoping he understood it correctly. "Yes" said the other dragon, sounding rather thankful.

"Well, as you might be able to tell, we don't have a place to stay either now so we can't help you. Wish we could though!" Drak sadly replied. "I noticed that, but I thought maybe I could travel with you all…If your mate and friend would allow me to," the mystery dragon said sounding hopeful. "My mate?...Oh, no, she's not my mate, we just recently met a few nights ago. She came into my home looking for a place to stay after she had the same problem you did," Drak said, blushing the whole time. "Oh sorry, my bad." stammered the other dragon. "Don't worry about it, its nothing…what's your name anyways?" asked Drak cheerfully.

"My names Kzichom, thank you for asking, now if I may, what's your name?" said the other dragon rather quietly, as if he was afraid the wrong ears would hear. "My names Drãkáñéñ, but please call me Drak," replied Drak, loud and clear. Drak and spent a few more minutes talking with Kzichom when he heard a voice next to him.

_Chapter 21_

Kzichom had just learned his new companions name and were chatting for a bit, when he heard a voice in the air ask "What….what happened?" Feeling like he should say something but not wanting to freak her out, he let Drak answer. Instead, he decided to study his new friends. While he was taking a good look at them, he heard Drak tell the female "his names Kzichom", which made him shy as she already knew so much about him now, but he knew nothing about her. He thought to himself for a few more seconds before he heard the female dragon say,

"Hey Kzichom, thanks for helping us, my names Ackriá." "Uh, no problem," Kzichom quickly stated without thinking. "Well aren't you shy" he heard Ackriá say meaningfully. "I'm not shy, I'm just…" Kzichom was saying before Drak interrupted with "he's recently been…exiled by his mate, so might I suggest to not talk about it?" After he said that, Kzichom noticed Drak look at him and wink. "Huh, what? Another friend?" he heard a new, small, soft voice say.

"Alek, you're awake!" he heard Drak say. "Alek, meet Kzichom, Kzichom, meet Alek," Ackriá said since Drak was too busy being happy Alek was still alive. Kzichom was happily talking to his new friends when he heard an angry voice shout "YOU IDIOT! WHY DO YOU SAVE THESE EXILED IMBECILES! NOW I HAVE TO KILL YOU TOO!" "Who are y-" Kzichom was saying before he was cut off by Ackriá who shouted "WHY DID YOU FOLLOW ME ALL THE WAY HERE! JUST GO AWAY AND LEAVE ME ALONE!" 'Wait, did they used to be mates? If they did then…I got in the middle of something you'd never want to be in the middle of' calmly thought Kzichom as he was not trying to scare himself.

Kzichom was trying to stay out of it, when he saw the angry dragon jump at him. Jumping out of the way, Kzichom slashed at the dragons hide, hoping to get him to fly away. Instead of the dragon running away, he turned around and breathed fire at Kzichom. Using his wing to block the fire, Kzichom managed to not get burnt to a crisp. The flames shortly stopped afterwards, as when he lifted his wing, he saw the dragon fighting Drak, who appeared to be winning, as the other dragons wing appeared to be busted and was bleeding out of his side.

Not wanting to leave Drak fighting him alone, he attacked the dragons other side, tearing at its hard scales, managing to put a few claw marks in his side, as his claws weren't very sharp. Upon getting attacked from two sides, the dragon jumped back, and breathed fire in a 180° angle in front of him. Kzichom had seen it coming and had put his other wing up, but he noticed Drak had not and had his face badly burnt but managed to put his wing up before his face was melted off. Kzichom knew Drak probably won't be able to fight anymore, so he leapt upwards, out of the fire and into the air. From the air, he flew at the other dragon, crashing into him whilst biting his neck with his teeth and clawing at his face.

He was soon knocked off by the other dragon, landing on the edge of the cliff. Kzichom managed to look up in time to see the dragon running at him, a vengeful look in his eyes. Kzichom thought it was the end as his leg was broken from hitting the ground so hard in the wrong position so he couldn't run, and he knew the dragon was about to knock him off the cliff. With the dragon only a few feet away, Kzichom closed his eyes, hoping his end would not be very painful. But nothing happened. Kzichom opened his eyes to see why when he saw Ackriá, who was recently protecting the human, fighting her ex mate.

She had managed to poke his eye out with her claw, and was pushing the other dragon that was already badly wounded from Drak and Kzichom's pelting of claws and teeth. Kzichom tried to get up but fell to his knees when he stood on his broken foot. Getting up again, but not touching his broken foot, he used his wings to launch him towards the angry dragon.

When he reached the dragon, he used his good legs to push the dragon off the cliff, while being careful not to push Ackriá off as well. His plan worked as he knocked the other dragon off the cliff, causing him to fall three hundred feet before hitting the ground. Turning back towards Ackriá, he thanked her for saving his life. "Oh, but I should be the one thanking you for saving my life. If you guys weren't here, I'd be dead right now." replied Ackriá, sounding happy.

_Chapter 22_

Alek was happily listening to the other dragons chatting, when he heard a loud shout from next to them. He turned to look when Ackriá was yelling at the other dragon. Alek was about to say something when Kzichom had jumped the side to avoid the angry dragon. Alek was going to try to break it up when Ackriá moved in front of him, protectingly. "Don't worry, we'll be fine" he heard Ackriá say, as if to reassure him.

Alek watched as the three dragons were fighting it out until Drak got his face burnt badly. When the other dragon had charged Kzichom, Alek ran over to Drak and started talking to him. "Does it hurt badly?" Alek asked Drak. "It burns" Drak said painfully. When Alek heard him say it burned, Alek blew on it a little, trying to cool it off. "Stop, stop, don't blow on it, it makes it feel worse," Alek heard Drak say.

Alek stopped blowing on it and asked how he could help it. "You can't help, just let it heal on its own" said Drak, wincing at every word. Alek had noticed him wincing at every word, so he said, "Shh, don't talk, just lay there." Alek then turned his attention to the fighting, when he saw Ackriá fighting the dragon that was three times her size. When it looked like she was about to be killed, he saw Kzichom ram into the dragon, knocking him off the cliff. Alek listened to the roar of defeat as it went further, and further away, until it stopped completely.

Alek watched as Kzichom and Ackriá walked back over, panting heavily. He saw Kzichom come over to Drak, who he could tell was still in a lot of pain from the burn, and softly breathe some ice on it. After a few seconds he heard Drak say "thanks…that helped a lot." "No problem, besides you're my friend, and friends help each other when they can, right?" said Kzichom. "Yes, I guess they do," replied Drak, a tone of gratefulness in his voice.

"Hey guys and gals, sorry to interrupt but we should probably find some shelter soon" interrupted Alek, as he pointed at the storm in the sky. He watched as the other three sighed and helped Drak up. "Get on" Alek heard Kzichom say to him. Alek quickly got onto him as he didn't want to be there when the storm reached them. "Where to?" asked Ackriá as she looked around.

"Up there, looks like a small opening," Kzichom said, nodding at the small hole in the mountain wall. "Better hurry then" Ackriá said whilst running to get a good jump into the air. She was soon followed by Drak and Kzichom, as they approached the cave.

_Chapter 23_

Drak was fighting the angry dragon when, to his surprise, the dragon jumped back and breathed fire at them. The fire caused Drak to get burnt badly. Drak put his wing in front of him to block it, but could barley hold his wing up long enough to block the fire and his face was burned. After the fire stopped, he noticed Kzichom had attacked the dragon to stop its fire breathing. Drak lowered his wing and winced at the pain of the burn. Drak could breathe fire himself since he was a fire dragon, but he didn't like to as it usually caused more problems than benefits.

However, he was glad he was a fire dragon as if he wasn't, that hit of fire to his face would have killed anyone, even a dragon if they were not of the fire species. While he was whimpering in pain, he heard Alek ask "Does it hurt badly?" Making Drak think 'of course it hurts you idiot!', but instead of saying that he said "It burns" as he winced at talking. He was getting used to it before Alek blew on it, causing the burn to heat up more. When it heated, it burned more which caused Drak to say "Stop, stop, don't blow on it, it makes it feel worse."

A few seconds after, he heard Alek ask "Can I help in any way at all?" Which earned a "You can't help, just let it heal on its own" from Drak as he winced at the pain of speaking. Shortly after, he heard Alek say, "Shh, don't talk, just lay there." This made Drak happy, as he didn't want to talk right now. About a minute later, he heard Kzichom and Ackriá walk over.

Kzichom came all the way to him and Drak felt him breathe some ice onto his burned face, which helped with the burning sensation a lot. "Thanks…that helped a lot" Drak said, extremely thankful. "No problem, besides you're my friend, and friends help each other when they can, right?" he heard Kzichom say. "Yes, I guess they do," Drak replied while smirking. He was lying there happily when he heard Alek say "Hey guys and gals, sorry to interrupt but we should probably find some shelter soon."

Causing him to open an eye and look at him, seeing him point, causing him to look at where he was pointing to see the storm. Drak sighed as he would have to get up, out of the comfy position he was in. He was about to tell Alek to get on him when he heard Kzichom say "Get on," making Drak glad he had friends willing to take him for him. Drak instead looked around for a place to stay when he heard Ackriá ask "Where to." "Up there, looks like a small opening," Kzichom responded. "Better hurry then" Drak heard Ackriá say before she ran and started to fly towards it. Drak, not wanting to be left behind, followed after her, with Kzichom behind him.

_Chapter 24_

Drak and his friends had just entered the cave when they heard a scared voice trying to sound tough say "W-what are you doing in my home?" Drak was about to answer when Ackriá said "Your home? If this is your home, then where's your scent marking it as yours?" This made Drak smile, as he realized the young dragon had forgotten to mark the cave as his. He looked into the young dragon's eyes, which were filled with fear as he must have seen the three of them fighting the other dragon which should have easily been able to kill them all. "Go on now before we kill you as well," Ackriá threatened. "Whoa, hold on, we can't just toss him out into the oncoming storm like that. He looks like he just barley left his parents, he can't possibly survive a storm, especially since he can't even remember to mark his territory…not that we wouldn't of still come anyways, but still," Drak said, horrified at what she had said.

"Well, we can't let him stay; he might try to kill us in our sleep" said Ackriá. "ENOUGH, this problem is simple to solve. Two of us will sleep while one will watch him and will trade posts with someone else every 5 hours," Kzichom stammered. Drak and Ackriá sighed and agreed to the terms as they knew arguing with each other would lead to nothing. Drak volunteered to take the first watch, but Kzichom went against it, saying Drak needed to rest the most. "No, I'm fine, you need to rest," Drak said.

"Drak, you're one who almost got your face burned off, I'm just a little sore, let me take watch while you both sleep," Kzichom replied, a little angry. "Will you two babies stop fighting, I'll take watch as I'm the least winded," Drak heard Ackriá say. Reluctantly, Drak sighed and curled up to sleep. Drak laid there, trying to sleep but something kept bothering him, rendering him of his ability to sleep. 'Why can't I sleep…I'm in a nice, warm cave with my friends. The youngling is too weak to harm any of us, and no one else is in here to help him,' Drak thought to himself.

_Chapter 25_

It had almost been 5 hours when Drak heard a noise from where Ackriá was, catching his attention. Drak waited a few more seconds, to see if anything else happened, when he felt something land on his hide. He sniffed the air for a moment before recognizing the smell of the object. 'blood' Drak said to himself, quickly realizing Ackriá could be in danger. Slowly moving his head, Drak looked at where Ackriá was supposed to be, and upon not seeing her there, he carefully looked, as to not be caught awake.

His eyes landed on a dragon in the middle of the room, covered in blood. After looking for a few more seconds, he recognized the dragon as Ackriá. 'Ackriá!' Drak almost said aloud in anger. Drak heard some noise from a dark corner. He strained his ears to help eavesdrop on their little conversation.

"But dad, I don't want to leave!" Drak heard the young dragon say. "Son, you were stupid to remain here with these idiotic dragons. Why didn't you fight them anyways? The guard was clearly very easy to kill, as I demonstrated." Drak guessed the father said that as he called the youngling his son. 'So he killed her…I'll have to make him pay…' Drak thought to himself angrily.

Wanting to get a better look at his enemy, he shifted his neck a little, causing him to hit a trap that the enemy must have put. Drak felt a sharp pain in his neck as the spear was launched off of the ground and into his neck with great force, causing Drak to grunt in pain. "Oh what do we have here? One of you woke up, I see? Now you must face the same fate your friend did," the calm yet angry dragon said. "Don't bother trying to wake your friend up, as I made sure they wouldn't wake up for another few…days…" he continued saying. Drak noticed he had stopped bleeding from the neck, which meant the spear must have been off target or not have gone all the way through his hide.

'Guess he's not so smart after all' Drak said, knowing he could easily take the smaller dragon if he didn't have any more tricks up his sleeve. "If you're going to make a trap with a human spear, at least make sure it's aimed right" Drak taunted, standing up to show his failure. "So I miss calculated the trajectory needed for the spear to go into your main blood vessel, but that doesn't matter, as you still won't beat me." the dragon taunted back. "Are you saying we should fight? As I can't wait to get my claws on you!" Drak shouted.

"We could fight, or you could lie down on your back and accept your fate. Now which one is it?" his opponent mockingly replied. "I'll never admit defeat nor will I ever lose to such a weak opponent as yourself," Drak stammered angrily. Not wanting to let him get the first strike, Drak lunged at the dragon. "Big mistake" the dragon quickly said while laughing. Unsure what he meant, Drak all of a sudden felt his leg go lifeless.

"Do you really think I'd fight someone as big as you fairly? You must be an idiot to believe that," the dragon laughed out. "You know what? I'll go ahead and let you live with your misery of knowing you lost to a weakling like me, and lost your friend as well. Bye now!" the dragon said as he flew away, leaving Drak alone with Ackriá.

_Chapter 26_

Alek had woken to some shouting, as he realized they weren't alone. He lay motionless under Kzichom as he didn't want to be detected. Alek heard a loud dragon say his friend was dead, and since he could hear Kzichom' heartbeat, he knew he must have meant Ackriá. 'No! Not her! Anyone but her!' Alek yelled inside his head. As he laid there for a few more minutes just listening, he heard a thump as something hit the ground.

After hearing the other dragon leave, he slowly got out from under Kzichom. He stood there for a few seconds, letting his eyes adjust when he saw two motionless lumps on the floor. Running over to the one who looked like Drak, he touched his head with is hand. "Alek…he killed her and…I couldn't do anything about it…" Alek heard Drak say, almost crying.

"Shh, it'll be alright, I'm sure she's fine, maybe she just fell unconscious." Alek said to Drak halfheartedly. "No, I listened for her breathing, she's dead." Drak stammered, clearly upset at Alek saying maybe she was still alive.

Not wanting to anger him any longer, Alek went over to the other body, which must have been Ackriá's. Feeling for her pulse, he waited ten seconds before he felt a very faint beet. "Drak! She's still alive, I can feel her heartbeat. He must of given her something deadly but it didn't kill her, I it just lowered her breathing and heart rate," Alek yelled happily.

Alek heard fast movement as he looked up and saw Drak limping over to where they were. "You sure? You aren't saying that just to make me feel better?" Drak asked. "Positive," Alek replied, knowing she was alive. "She'll wake up in a few days. She'll wake up weak, but alive nonetheless," Alek said soon afterwards, wanting Drak to stay happy. "We'll all be happy soon, just hang in there Ackriá," Alek heard Drak mumble to himself, and possibly to her as well.

2nd POV

_Prologue_

Súdreth was flying home from visiting his relatives when an explosion knocked him out of the sky. He had fallen into a dense jungle and gotten tangled in the vines. Desperate for help, he roared a plead of help, hoping someone would hear and save him before the humans got to him.

_Chapter 1_

Upon hearing no response, Súdreth was freaking out. If the humans caught him, who knows what they would do to him. He heard they would rip your wings off to study them, or cut you open for their entertainment. Sometimes seeing how long you can go without roaring in pain. Not wanting to think about how much pain he was going to be in if the humans caught him; he tried to cut the vines with his claws.

To no avail, the humans had genetically remade the jungle to be indestructible, so no being could escape if entangled. 'Blasted humans must hate nature to do something as terrible as this' he thought to himself. 'Maybe they're flammable!' Súdreth quickly thought as he tried to burn the vines. "GRAH! WHY ARE THEY SO SMART!" he yelled at himself aloud. "He's over there!" Súdreth heard in the distance as he realized he just gave away his entire position. Struggling to get free of the vines, he didn't notice the gas around him until he was falling asleep.

When Súdreth woke up, he looked at his surroundings. Recognizing none of it, he tried to remember the night before. 'I must be inside one of their…cages…' Drak thought to himself whilst gulping at the very thought. "You're awake," he heard a voice say. Turning around, Súdreth saw a single human, with what looked like a tranquilizer in his hands.

Normally, he would have killed the human right then and there but the tranquilizer scared him as he knew its affects from stories he heard from dragons who managed to escape the humans. Unfortunately the human couldn't understand him as to them, dragon talk sounded like either a roar, a growl, whimpering, or whining. So Súdreth had to give a little growl to give the human a hint to stay back, but instead of the human getting the hint to stay back, he approached, with the tranquilizer gun aimed right at Súdreth's head. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you" the human said. Not believing him, Súdreth backed up into a defensive stance to be ready to defend himself if needed.

He noticed the human stopped moving and aimed the tranquilizer gun a little lower as if he was trying to prove something. Súdreth kept his stance, as he didn't want to let his guard down, even know the human clearly didn't want to harm him. "Hey, are you alright? You were almost caught by the military in their fake jungle before I found you," the human stated with a worried tune. "Then why am I trapped here?" Súdreth asked, forgetting humans can't understand his kind. Sighing, the human said, "You can walk around freely but you HAVE to stay here or else the military WILL capture you and kill me," whilst emphasizing on a few words.

Understanding what he meant but not completely trusting him, Súdreth moved to the other end of room whilst watching the human for any sighs of danger. 'Small room, but it must seem big to him as he's at least 1/4th of my height' Súdreth thought and smiled to himself at the last part knowing he could easily crush him if he had the chance. Looking at the only entrance to the room, Súdreth saw it was too small for him to fit through. 'How did he get me in here when I get even get out' Súdreth questioned himself. As he looked some more, he noticed part of the wall did not match the rest of the hall.

'Must be a hidden door here!' Súdreth thought to himself excitingly as he marked its location. "So I take it you like your new home? Or at least new home until the military leaves," the human said as Súdreth was looking around. Súdreth simply nodded a yes as the place wasn't half bad to his standards. In fact, it was better than where he usually lived, which was in small caves or nervously in the open. Looking at the main part of the room, Súdreth saw it was a old cargo hold as there were big boxes on the middle of it and some grates on the wall which led up to the ceiling.

When he looked at the ceiling, he noticed a very rotten spot which looked easily destroyable as it must have been very old. Noting its location incase he had to make a quick escape into the air, he turned his attention back to the human and watched it. He noticed it studying him as if it was impressed by him. Súdreth didn't think he was that impressive being only 18 feet tall and 30 feet long with a long tail. His hide was emerald blue with some streaks of bloody red along his legs and his claws were very dull since he didn't use them much, only now realized why he should have kept them sharp. Once the human left, Súdreth laid down on the floor and slept as he was still tired from his long flight.

_Chapter 2_

Súdreth was enjoying his nap when he heard a loud bang from outside the room. When he focused his hearing to that area, he could make out a few voices. He listened intently for a few seconds when he came to the conclusion that the human who saved him was talking to the military about if he saw a dragon near by or not. Not believing him, the military personal seemed to be beating him up whilst saying he was hiding an illegal personal. Since Súdreth thought he owed the human for saving his life, he scratched the door with one of his claws to indicate there was something in that room which would lead the soldier into his room. Súdreth decided to do this because he'll be easy to kill since there were no other soldiers nearby.

He heard the soldier stop moving and start walking towards the door so Súdreth climbed onto the ceiling and waited. Once the soldier entered the room, Súdreth noticed he had a tranquilizer gun so he had to be careful. After the soldier was in the middle of the room, Súdreth dropped down on him, grasping him with his claw whilst breaking his arm so he drops the gun. Grinning, Súdreth toyed with the soldier trying to make sure he has a slow painful death. After he had his fun, Súdreth went ahead and killed the soldier to check on the human who saved him.

He laid down in front of the door and tried to check on him. He couldn't see the human as the hall which the door led to curved shortly after the entrance, blocking his vision. A few seconds had past that he laid there when the familiar human came into view, a gun against the back of his head. 'So there was more than one of them…he must have been standing completely still whilst making no noise and have covered himself in some repellent so I couldn't smell him. Now that I think about, I couldn't smell the other soldier either,' Súdreth thought worryingly since there might be even more waiting outside.

"Hey there pal, do you mind if I come in," the human nervously said. Knowing why he sounded so nervous, Súdreth grabbed him and flew off towards the weak spot in the ceiling he saw earlier and rammed into it. It didn't break the first time but it weakened severely which was easily noticeable by the metal falling off of it. Súdreth hit it a few more times before he broke through, flying away with the human. Once he flew far away from that place, he landed on the top of a mountain and after looking around, decided to stay there for a while.

Turning his attention back to the human, he noticed it appeared to be in shock. "Hey, you alright?" Súdreth asked which translated as a whine. As if he broke the magical ward which put the human in that state, the human looked at him worryingly before saying "You…you saved my life. I had just met you and you took my life into your own…uh…claws." Súdreth just stared at him before he realized that he had indeed took his life into his claws. If he had not successfully escaped, the human would have been killed and Súdreth would be in a lab with tests being done on him. If he just hid, the human would have likely been killed anyways for wasting the soldier's time. If he had just been discovered, they would have killed the human for hiding him and he would be put in a test lab.

As Súdreth was thinking about what just happened, he felt a sharp pain just below his heart. When he turned his head to look, he felt very sleep all of a sudden and before he fell asleep, he heard the human say, "Sorry, but it's my job."

_Chapter 3_

When Súdreth woke up, he found himself in a completely white room. Furious at himself for "saving" that human, he swore he would never help anyone besides another dragon again. 'They planned the whole thing, they must of…I must of blacked out in the jungle so they put me in that place to make it look as if that human saved me. Then they staged a search and when I escaped, the human shot me with that tranquilizer gun and brought me to their labs. The whole thing was a big test. A test to see how strong I was,' Súdreth thought as he bashed against the wall trying to break it down.

Súdreth heard a loud hit pitched noise fill the room causing him to shriek in pain as it hurt his ears greatly. While he was in pain, he caught a glimpse of some humans in the room writing down something on a notepad, completely oblivious to the sound. A few seconds later the sound stopped and when Súdreth went to kill the humans they were gone. Concerned by the fact that the humans could emit a painful sound that only dragons could hear disturbed Súdreth, as it meant they could easily capture him. Not wanting to remain there anymore, he rammed the door, hoping it would break but to no avail.

Frustrated with what's recently happened, Súdreth just laid down in the middle of the room and thought about the day. Not believing that he actually trusted that human, he made a mental note to kill him first. As he was thinking, he heard a familiar voice say "It's quite easy to gain his trust, as I did within minutes. All you have to do is act like you're trying to save and help him. He then will protect you and do as you ask." Súdreth thought for a little until he recognized the voice.

'THAT HUMAN!' he yelled in his mind, frustrated that he can't kill him now. 'Well, at least they think I'll easily trust them, maybe I can play along with that' thought Súdreth as he grinned to himself. "Now what's he grinning about?" the voice asked not even showing a hint of concern. "I don't know, maybe he's thinking about the happy times he's had in life," another voice said. Súdreth now frowned, since they could see his every move from behind these walls whilst he can't see anything they're doing.

He was about to fall asleep when he felt a huge amount of pain hit his side, causing him to roar in pain. "Subject 85 seems to get hurt easily," Súdreth heard a voice say in the distance as he looked at what hit him. He could see nothing that would have hurt him as there was nothing in the room with him. The pain occurred again as if something was repetitively hitting him even though there was nothing else in the room.

When Súdreth put his claw over his side to try and stop the pain, it didn't help at all. 'Nothing I do...seems to help' Súdreth thought whilst wincing at the pain. "Subject 85 seems to think something is hitting him on the outside. Good. We want him to think that," the voice said again. 'It's not….coming from outside?!' Súdreth thought worryingly.

'They must have put some form of pain machine inside of me while I was asleep!' Súdreth thought painfully. On the verge of falling asleep again, he felt the pain increase by tenfold. Roaring so loud that he almost ruined his vocal chords, Súdreth fainted at the pain, just awake long enough to hear the human say, "Subject 85 is very weak. He can't even stand test #2."

_Chapter 4_

When Súdreth woke up, he found himself shacked on some metal device. He tried to move his tail but found it stuck under something metal, same with his claws and head. After struggling for a few more seconds, he heard a human next to him say, "Oh stop trying already, you're just being annoying." Not wanting the humans to have their fun, Súdreth kept struggling.

Soon, he heard the human sigh and he felt the pain in his side again. Unable to do anything about it, he just held still hoping it would stop. After a few seconds, he noticed it stop and when he looked at the human in front of him, he saw it holding some device. Súdreth struggled again while looking at the human and he saw the human turn something which caused his side to be in even more pain than last time. Súdreth quickly stopped struggling as he realized the human could use that device to cause huge amounts of pain whenever they wanted.

After he just laid there for a while, he heard the human say, "Good, I see you're being cooperative. I hope you remain this way as it'll make things go a lot smoother. Now if you could open your mouth for me." Not wanting to be their little pet, he didn't comply. He noticed the human start to reach towards the device again, which caused Súdreth to say, "No no! Please no!" which sounded like a whine to the human. "Then open your mouth and cooperate or we'll have to make this a lot more painful," the human replied to his whining. Reluctantly, Súdreth opened his mouth as wide at the device he was on would let him.

He soon felt something latch onto the roof of his mouth, causing him to not be able to close it. 'Smart humans…I hate them' Súdreth thought to himself. Since he couldn't see what the human was doing, he jumped a little when he felt something wet again the top of his mouth. The top of his mouth soon went very dry and stung badly.

Súdreth whined at the pain, almost crying. "Oh come on now, don't be such a baby" he heard the human mock. 'How about we switch places and you let me do whatever you're doing to me to you instead, huh?' Súdreth angrily thought. Just when Súdreth thought it couldn't get any worse, he felt the heat from something very hot under his tail. "Now hold still while we see how durable you are to 200° heat," he heard the human say behind him. 'Please just kill me now…' Súdreth thought to himself sadly.

He felt the device lower his tail until he felt the tip hit the top of the water, causing him to wince in pain. "Seems like you're resistant to heat. Now how about water?" he heard the human say. He felt his tail get higher as the hot substance was replaced by some ice cold water. He heard the human say, "Test #5: tip of tail in -200° ice cold water." He felt his tail begin to be lower again until he felt the water.

He felt his tail beginning to freeze in the water. "Subject 85 is resistant to heat and cold. Resort to electricity when needed," he heard the human say. 'Electricity? Is that what they use to hurt my side?' Súdreth thought to himself. He felt something sharp penetrate his hide as the world began to fade away.

_Chapter 5_

Súdreth woke up to be blinded by some very bright lights. Súdreth tired to close his eyes to block out the light only to find out there was something keeping them opened. "Subject 85 seems to not like bright lights. Use bright lights to disorientate it," he heard come from the right of him. Feeling as if he was going to go blind, he whined hoping the human would turn the lights off.

"Subject 85 whines to try to get us to do what he wants. Subject 85 seems to resort to other beings to help it," was the reply he got from the human. 'So if I do anything with them they just get information from it and don't help me at all…great,' Súdreth thought while frowning. A few seconds later the lights turned off and he saw two humans in front of him, both wearing white clothing. "Subject 85's pupils seem to have dilated to try to get used to the bright light but to no avail," the human said again. Súdreth tried to move only to find he was held down by a different machine.

Súdreth's eyes were beginning to tear as he needed to blink real badly. "Subject 85's eyes seemed to be tearing from the need to blink. Note this for future reference," he heard the human mention at his tears. Súdreth was about to whimper when he felt the claws that held his eyelids up go away. Wasting no time, Súdreth blinked to try to moist his eyes back up since who knows how long it had been since he last blinked.

"Beginning test #7 on Subject 85," the human said as Súdreth felt a blade on his claws. 'No! They're going to cut off my claws!' Súdreth thought to himself worryingly. "Subject 85's claws seem to be highly durable. Going to need to postpone test #7 until we get better cutting equipment," Súdreth thankfully heard the human say. Súdreth heard the humans leave the room while he just lay there constrained on a machine. A few seconds later, he heard and felt the restraints come off causing him to jump off of the machine and hit the roof.

When he got up, he noticed he was in a small room just big enough for him to lay in. Not able to get comfortable anywhere, Súdreth just sat there waiting for something to happen. Súdreth was about to fall asleep in boredom when he heard a voice from above him say, "Subject 85, please go to the opposite wall and lay on your back." Knowing the painful equipment the humans have, Súdreth went over to the wall and rolled onto his back. After he laid on his back, he felt a metal bar go on top of his stomach, eliminating his ability to get up.

He then felt a tight leather belt tie onto his mouth, removing his ability to bite. No more than a second later, he heard some humans come in and when he turned to look at them he felt the pain in his side. "No looking. Just look up," he heard the voice in the ceiling say. Hating the pain, Súdreth complied with the voice since it was the only option he had. Súdreth soon felt a sharp blade cutting his hide. Trying to roar in pain but unable to, Súdreth had to lay there and suffer.

Súdreth could feel blood running down his sides as he was cut open to be examined while he was still awake. Not believing humans could be this cruel, he told himself he was going to kill himself the first chance he got. Súdreth soon felt a sharp object in his throat as the world thankfully faded away again.

_Chapter 6_

Súdreth woke up to the sound of metal. He looked at his surrounding when he saw all the corpses of dead beings the humans must have killed. 'The humans must have thought I was dead…or this is another test,' Súdreth thought, hoping it was he first one. Noticing a small doorway, Súdreth quietly crept over to it. Once he got near it, he could make out faint voices in the distance. "Sucks that Subject 85 had to die, he was a good subject. We've never seen any dragon like him before. Oh well, I'm sure we'll find another sometime," Súdreth heard when he focused his hearing.

'Either they're really trying to fool me or they actually think I'm dead' Súdreth figured. Súdreth didn't want to alert the humans so he snuck around the entrance, looking for another way out. He found a small gap in the floor which must have been the sewage disposal. Súdreth tried to fit in the small gap to no avail as he was too big.

Súdreth was going to try to claw his way into the sewage when he noticed his claws had been cut. 'Bah! They found a way to cut my claws…my poor beautiful claws,' Súdreth thought as he frowned to himself. Súdreth was about to continue trying to find out when he heard a human voice say, "Hey, you can stop trying to find a way out as there isn't any. They sealed all the exits besides the one to get into the complex and who wants to go back there?" Frightened by the sudden sound, Súdreth had jumped a little and looked back at the human who appeared to be a little scared of him.

Súdreth noticed the human frown when he looked at where his claws should have been. Súdreth growled a little warning that the human shouldn't approach him. Súdreth noticed the human back up with its weaponless hands in there air and it said, "Look, I'm not with them! That's the reason I'm here, I tried to stop them." Not believing him after his last incident with the last human he believed, Súdreth went the other way and continued looking. Súdreth had traveled at least a hundred meters before he found a narrow tunnel, wide enough for him to fit in but small enough so he couldn't turn.

Happy he had found an exit at last, he began the narrow walk between the walls until he felt something sharp hit his leg. After wincing in pain, he looked at the object in his leg. It looked like a metal spear designed to kill anyone who tried to escape. Upon further inspection, he saw it should have hit his head but because of the way he was walking, it hit his leg instead. Glad he was still alive, Súdreth continued walking.

Súdreth thought the narrow tunnel would never end until he saw light ahead. 'Finally! Now I can be free of this wretched place,' Súdreth happily thought to himself. Once Súdreth left the narrow hall, he walked a few feet before he was struck in the head by a big metal object, knocking him out cold.

_Chapter 7_

Súdreth awoke to find himself in a small room much similar to the one he was in earlier when he was being cut open. 'So it was a test…' Súdreth thought to himself sadly as he laid there depressed. He laid there for about an hour before he heard someone entering the room. Súdreth just laid there facing away from the door when he heard the door open. He waited for the human to zap him with their pain inflicting device when he heard the human approach him instead.

Now curious as to why the human was acting this way, he laid there as if completely asleep to fool the human. Súdreth had closed his eyes when he heard the human walking around him towards his head and lowered his breathing rate to match what it would be if he was still sleeping. "Still asleep huh…well I guess it's no big surprise considering the condition he was in and who knows what they did in there," he heard the human say. 'They're still trying to fool me huh?' Súdreth silently thought whilst trying to not grin or smile. Expecting the human to leave the room, Súdreth was surprised when the human instead crouched down next to him and started stroking his act startled Súdreth causing him to shiver which startled the human in return.

"Guess you are awake…trying to give me a heart attack or something?" he heard the human ask after he recovered from his fright. Súdreth just stayed silent as if he never moved. "Come on now, I know you're awake, you can't hide it forever. You don't trust me, I know. I wouldn't trust me either if I were you since the last thing you probably remember was being tormented by the military as they did their tests and studies," the human said as if trying to calm Súdreth's nerves. Súdreth growled a warning at the human to not even think about crossing him.

Súdreth just watched as the human slowly backed away with his hands up. 'Nice try, but it's not going to work on me this time,' Súdreth thought to himself, glad he learned their evil tricks. "Look, I know it's probably taking all you have to not kill me right now but you have to trust me. I'm not with them! I hate them actually, I hate what they do and they leave a bad impression for the rest of us. You can leave now if you'd like but the military has troops all over the area, I'd be impossible to escape them," the human calmly said. Wondering why he hadn't killed the human already, Súdreth didn't notice the human walk up to him and slowly reach out and scratch Súdreth's cheek. Startled by the sudden feeling, Súdreth jumped a little and growled a growl that startled the human causing him to run back through the door and shut it.

Sad that he made the human run yet happy that he was away from any humans, Súdreth went back to sleep. Waking up again to the door opening, he heard the human say, almost whisper, "Hey…you awake? Sorry if I startled you, I just…didn't think you'd mind if I…" as his voice trailed off when Súdreth moved his head and just looked at him in his eyes. Seeing no hint of anger or hatred, just curiosity and a hint of cowardness in his eyes, Súdreth relaxed again and closed his eyes. He listened for the human's footsteps as to know if the human was going towards or away from him.

Soon he heard the footsteps get louder which meant the human was going towards him. This time, when he felt the hand on his cheek again he didn't jump or flinch, he just laid there since he knew it was coming. "Hey there…you alright? You looked really hurt when I found you laying there on the ground in that alleyway. I was afraid you might die so I took you to my place and I helped you," the human said softly. Just noticing the big bandages across his chest and stomach, Súdreth thought he had finally found a friend in the harsh world of humans.

"So uh if you don't mind me asking, did they…cut you open? Is that how you got that big cut running along your stomach and chest?" he heard the human ask. Súdreth just simply nodded, hoping the human would understand. "Oh…it must have hurt a lot. From what I hear, they don't do it while you're asleep so they can get better information. Well, I'd better be going so you can get some more rest. Behave now!" the human said after petting Súdreth a little longer. After the human left, Súdreth focused his hearing towards where he went to make sure he wasn't being played. All he heard was the human muttering to himself about how he should have been there quicker.

Grateful to the human for possibly saving his life, Súdreth started planning a way to thank the human when he heard a loud bang on the outer door. "POLICE! OPEN UP!" he heard someone shout from outside. "Coming, I'm coming," his human said. He heard him open the door and start talking with the officers. After about a minute, he heard the human shut the door and walk back to him rather quickly.

"We must go, now!" he heard the human ask. "Why?" Súdreth asked as he forgot that humans can't understand him. "Don't whine, just come on!" the human replied which indicated he thought Súdreth didn't want to leave. When Súdreth stood up, he fell down again in pain as he couldn't stand on his front left leg. He noticed the human frowning at him as it ran over to him and tried to help him walk.

Thanking the human with a lick to the side of its head, Súdreth put as little weight on his leg as he could while he slowly walked with the human. Wondering where to go, Súdreth looked around until he saw the human hit something on the wall causing the wall next to it to lift upwards. After the human came back and helped him walk again, Súdreth went outside the small house they were in. Once they were outside, Súdreth could smell the scent of human everywhere around them as if they were surrounded. As if sensing his discomfort, the human said "Don't worry, they can't see us nor do they know we're here. As long as we remain silent and follow this path, we'll get out of here easily, alright?"

Nodding in understanding, Súdreth continued to follow the human's direction in which he was helping him walk. They had almost made it to a big hole on the wall when a big explosion came from behind them. When Súdreth looked back, he saw the old building which he was resting in was ablaze and ruined. 'Humans are so shameless; they would destroy homes in order to get what they wanted. I bet they would relentlessly kill everyone who got in their way to get what they wanted,' Súdreth sadly thought whilst imagining humans killing other humans for something as petty as for the fun of it. Turning back around due to the humans tugging, Súdreth entered the big hole just to immediately want back out.

"No, not in there, please! It smells so bad!" Súdreth whined as he smelled the air. "I know it smells bad but we have to keep moving. If we stay here they will find us and kill me whilst you will most likely be took back to be tested on. Reluctantly, Súdreth stopped fighting and went onward through the horrible smell with the human which he considered his only friend. Súdreth breathed happily once they left the foul odor behind in that forsaken place. Súdreth continued traveling for about a day or two before the human said, "Alright lets stop here. We can continue tomorrow morning." Glad they could rest for a while, Súdreth immediately plopped himself down on the ground and fell asleep.

_Chapter 8_

'No! It was another test and I fell for it like the idiot I am,' Súdreth thought to himself angrily. "Subject 85 seems to be easily influenced by people who are kind to him. Use this to our advantage," the scientist next to him said. Súdreth was about to snap at the scientist, regardless if the pain in his side started again or not when he felt something sharp scrape his hide. 'No! Not again! Please, anything but that! Súdreth worryingly shouted in his head.

As the sharp metal penetrated his hide, Súdreth attempted to roar in pain but failed as he was muffled by the leather strapped on his mouth. Súdreth felt the object go away to his surprise, just to see another scientist bringing a sharp object towards his head. Once the scientist reached him, it brought the object towards his head, sharp end first as if to stab his eye. Once the object impaled him, Súdreth let out a roar of pain as he felt his brain start turning to mush.

Súdreth woke up with a roar as the human from earlier was shaking him with sweat running down his face while saying "Hey, wake up! You're having a nightmare! Please, please wake up!" Glad it was just a dream; Súdreth relaxed and let himself be stroked by the human who was trying to calm him down. "Hey, are you okay? You looked like your nightmare involved a lot of pain. Were you back in their test labs?" the human asked him softly. With a simple nod, Súdreth signaled that it did take place back in the lab. "Do you remember what they were doing to you?" he asked again.

Using his tail, Súdreth traced a line across his side to indicate they were cutting him open and stabbed his head with the tip of his tail to indicate they were stabbing his head. "Seems very painful…well, you're safe now. You won't be going back there anytime soon, alright?" the human calmly stated. Nodding, Súdreth tried to stand up only to have the human pull him back down and say "No, no please don't leave just yet. Rest a little longer, at least until you recuperate from your nightmare." Not wanting to anger his friend, Súdreth laid there a little longer with his head resting against the humans lap.

"Alright I think it's time to go now," the human said after a while. Nodding in return, Súdreth got up and walked alongside the human since he could walk on his own now. After a few minutes of walking, the human stopped and asked "You know what, I never learned your name and I would like to know it. I bet you'd like to know mine as well, huh?" Súdreth smiled at him as he was waiting for this time to come. "My names Jeff, now how to make it so you can tell me your name," said Jeff.

Súdreth thought for a little before noticing a small branch near them. Walking over to it, he picked it up with his maw and started to write _Súdreth_ in the dirt. "Súdreth huh? Nice name, it really suits you," said Jeff. Súdreth smiled at him kindly to thank him for the compliment. "Well, better keep on going so we don't get found by anyone," Jeff said after a while. Súdreth nodded a little to signal that he agreed. While they were walking, Súdreth thought to himself about what would have happened and where he would be right now if he had kept his promise to himself to kill all humans he sees. 'I'd probably be back in one of their wretched labs' Súdreth nastily thought.

_Chapter 9_

Súdreth and Jeff were walking for a while before Súdreth heard a noise that sounded like rocks falling behind them. Súdreth turned his head to see what caused the noise. When he saw nothing, he turned his attention back to where they were walking when he heard it again. This time, instead of looking he just listened to see if something or someone was following them. Sure enough, he kept hearing movement behind him and he turned again to make sure just to see nothing and hear the moving stop.

"Just keep going forward, act like he's not there," Jeff whispered quietly. 'Wait, how does he know there's someone following us? Apparently whoever is isn't very quiet at all,' Drak silently thought. After walking for a few more meters, Súdreth heard more footsteps behind him. 'There's more of them, could it be that the other mean humans found us?' Súdreth worried in thought. Súdreth was walking normally when he felt something sharp pierce his left hind leg.

Roaring in anger, Súdreth turned around to see a human standing there holding something in its hands. Súdreth turned to jump at it when he felt a sharp pain in his leg, the same pain that was in his side before when he was in their labs. The only difference was that this time the pain was in his leg and it was worse. It took all Súdreth could muster to not fall down and cry in pain. Súdreth could hear the enemy talking, or rather yelling at Jeff.

He laid there, resting while the two talked. Suddenly, Súdreth heard a gasp of pain as he saw Jeff stab the other human in his stomach lightning fast. Jeff soon turned and said, "What? I'm not a weakling like them; I don't resort to technology to do all my fights for me." Glad that his human wasn't like the other humans in any way at all, Súdreth looked at the object in his leg and noticed it was a long gray looking stick that was very sharp on one end. There was a wire sticking from the other end and it led to a device the other human had been holding.

"Oh, that, don't worry Súdreth, I can get that out easily," Jeff quickly stated. Glad that Jeff was so kind to him, Súdreth laid on the ground and held his leg out for Jeff. He watched Jeff as he pulled the object out of his leg, the amount of pain caused by it being pulled out not able to be described by words but after it was out he felt a lot better. Súdreth licked Jeff's head to thank him for taking the object out. After resting a bit, Súdreth started to wonder who those men were.

Súdreth poked Jeff's side to get his attention and nodded towards the dead men. "Oh, they were bandits, people who kill or harm others for their own well being. They would leave their own friends to die for a penny if they could," Jeff replied after a few seconds of having a confused look on his face. Feeling like he could walk again, Súdreth stood up for a few seconds before his leg fell beneath him. "Guess we're going to be staying here for a while then. Better get comfortable and go to sleep until tomorrow as we're going to have a long day ahead of us," Jeff said after Súdreth unsuccessfully tried to stand. Signing, Súdreth laid his head on a flat rock next to him and closed his eyes to rest.

_Chapter 10_

A few hours had past as Súdreth laid on that rock trying to sleep without any success when some faint noise from behind them caught his attention. 'More bandits?' Súdreth thought, horrified at what they could and would do. He focused his hearing behind him, being careful not to move his ears too much as to not give away the fact that he was awake. He heard the movement get closer and closer until he heard a voice say, "Is it asleep captain?" 'Is this the military? No, it can't be, they wouldn't risk doing something like this,' Súdreth said in his mind.

"Quiet you idiot, we don't want to wake it. We don't know how strong it is; besides we don't want anything to do with it. We just want some payback from its friend," an older voice said. "Yes, sorry sir. It's just that how do we know it isn't already awake?" the younger voice said again. "We don't know, we just have to hope it hasn't already awoken from us talking now shut up," the older one replied. Soon, Súdreth heard them walk by his head and stop. He could tell by the smell that one of them was waving its hand in his face to try to see if he was awake. "Seems to still be asleep to me. Now lets hurry, we don't want to keep _him_ waiting," the older one whispered. Súdreth heard them approach where Jeff must have been when he heard something fall down.

Súdreth slowly opened one eye, making sure he wasn't noticed when he saw Jeff had punched one of the men in his eye. The other man quickly pulled something out of his pocket and swung it at Jeff, causing him to jump back. "You're not getting away this time Jeff, you've got no where to run and we have you surrounded," the big one said. "Surrounded? By two people? Please, it'll take more than that to trap me," Jeff said. "You really think it's just us? The rest of us are held up around here, watching. If you even try to run they will kill you so don't even try," the big one said again.

Remembering that the two men had said they would rather not mess with him, Súdreth wondered whether or not that they had forgotten about him. As he was thinking, he heard something land on top of him. Súdreth heard the being grunting in pain when he heard it whisper, "Hey Súdreth, you awake?" 'Jeff!' Súdreth thought to himself happily, but became worried quickly as he remembered he said that whilst grunting in pain. Súdreth flicked his ear as a symbol that he was awake as he didn't want Jeff to be in pain longer than he had to be.

"Alright, glad you're awake. We need to get out of here quickly; do you think you can walk yet?" Jeff silently asked. Súdreth flicked his ear twice to say no. Súdreth waited for Jeff to say something when he saw one of the men charge at them while trying to be quiet as to try to not wake the dragon which was him. "I can't fight any longer; you need to get us out of here!" Jeff yelled aloud. "Who you talking to Jeff? You trying to wake that stupid dragon whose probably dead and you're just trying to fake it being alive?" the other human said as he stopped charging and stood there.

'He just called me a stupid dragon…HE JUST CALLED ME A STUPID DRAGON!' Súdreth yelled in his mind. 'He is dead! As soon as he comes over here I'll eat him alive,' Súdreth planned in his mind. "Now come here you coward and face me in the open," the other human said. "Why? You too…scared to come over here?" Jeff said as he winced. "No, I'd just prefer to have a fair fight. I'll attack first if I have to though!" the other man yelled as he charged again.

Once the other human was close enough to his head, Súdreth roared in his face and bit him whole while the human was screaming in fear. 'Well that worked well,' Súdreth happily thought as he finished his meal. "Thanks Súdreth, you really saved my life, I owe you one," Jeff stated. Súdreth shook his head to deny Jeff owing him one as he's the one who owed Jeff for saving his life multiple times.

Súdreth froze as he heard the bushes all around them move as if something was inside them. "Súdreth, we got to go! NOW!" Jeff yelled as the rustles got louder. 'Hold on!' Súdreth thought as he grabbed Jeff with his tail and used his wings to push him into the air and he flew off. 'I can't be up here too long or I'll get knocked down again...' Súdreth thought as he remembered how it all got started.

_Chapter 11_

They had been flying away from where they had encountered those bandits when Súdreth heard something go whistling past his head and explode in front of him. 'Oh no, I am NOT going back there again' Súdreth growled in frustration. Hearing a second whistle, Súdreth dropped a dozen feet to dodge the other object which exploded above him. "Huh? What's going on?" Jeff yelled behind him. 'Was he asleep the whole time? Well I guess I don't blame him as he must have been tired from fighting those bandits earlier' Súdreth was thinking until another explosion landed near him, shaking him out of thought.

Putting all of his concentration on not getting hit, Súdreth dodged another object as it hit right where he just was. Súdreth thought they would never get away until he saw some mountains ahead of them. 'I've almost escaped their trap! Just a little further!' Súdreth happily thought. He heard more than one whistle behind him as he realized there was more than one this time. He flew straight downwards whilst tightening his grip on Jeff with his tail to try and dodge all of them.

Súdreth thought he dodged them when he looked back and saw they had changed direction. 'Are they following me?!' Súdreth almost yelled in anger. He spat a fireball at the object and hit one causing it to blow up. He made a swift turn and caused one to hit the other object, making them both blow up. Súdreth turned back towards the mountains and flew at them as fast as he could.

He had almost reached the safety of the mountain when he felt his right leg get hit by one of the objects and the explosion from it knocked him out of the sky, causing him to fall downwards. Hoping his leg wasn't that hurt, he balanced himself with his wings and with one final effort, launched himself forward between the mountains. Using the momentum from the launch, he maneuvered through the mountains using his wings. Once he was near the ground, he tried to land on just his hind legs to try to not tear his front leg anymore.

He was standing on his hind legs for a few seconds before he collapsed and landed on his front, hitting his head on the ground, dazing him. While he was dazed, his tail relaxed as it uncurled from around Jeff, who he had forgotten he was holding in his tail. "Súdreth…your leg! It's…" Jeff was saying but stopped as he noticed that Súdreths eyes were filled with fear. 'My leg…its useless now and it's going to be useless forever…my poor leg, it didn't deserve this,' Súdreth whined in his mind. Súdreth felt something touch his ruined leg which caused him to bite his lip in an effort to avoid roaring so loudly that everyone within a ten mile radius would hear him.

He managed to keep it down to a whimper which made him a little happier. Súdreth finally got the courage to take a look at his leg. Súdreths face filled with horror as he realized it had been completely torn up. Scales were missing all around it; there were big cuts with blood spilling out like a running faucet. It was a deep black colour which burned very badly and he swore he could see bone in some spots.

Súdreth was now whimpering in pain and horror very loudly, so loud that he scared himself as he realized how loud he was. Súdreth felt a sharp needle pierce his hide as the world started to fade away. "Sorry Súdreth, but you need to just relax and slow your heart rate," Jeff said. For once, Súdreth was glad he was about to fall asleep as the pain was too much for him to handle being awake for.

_Chapter 12_

Súdreth woke up what seemed like weeks later but had only been days. He laid there for a few minutes as his memory slowly came back to him. 'I was in so much pain before…before Jeff hit me with one of those tranquilizer things,' Súdreth slowly thought as he mentally noted to thank Jeff in some way. Súdreth had not noticed Jeff enter the cave until he heard him say, "Hey buddy, I see you woke up. Glad to see you're okay. You were in so much pain earlier, I just couldn't bare seeing you in that much pain so I sort of…knocked you out with the tranquilizer dart. Please don't be mad at me Súdreth." Súdreth just started into Jeff's loving, caring eyes and smiled. 'Its alright, I'm actually glad you did that,' Súdreth thought to himself, wishing he could tell Jeff that.

"Hey, by the way, I didn't know you could breathe fire! Why didn't you ever tell or show me!?" Jeff suddenly burst out. 'Well, I didn't think it was that amazing' Súdreth thought to himself, shocked at Jeff finding that amazing. "Could you do it again? Please? Maybe light the campfire that I can't seem to get lit?" Jeff pleaded. Wondering what campfire he meant, Súdreth looked behind Jeff and saw the small pile of sticks. 'That's a campfire? Looks pretty small to me,' Súdreth thought to himself. Not wanting to accidently burn Jeff, Súdreth motioned Jeff to move out of the way with his tail. "Oh, right, sorry," Jeff quickly said. Once he moved, Súdreth waited for him to watch and then blew a small fireball onto the pile of wood, causing it to burn instantly.

Súdreth then looked at Jeff and was surprised to see a shocked expression coming from him. Ever so carefully, Súdreth curled up around Jeff and fell back asleep. Súdreth woke up a few hours later to find Jeff lying against him asleep. Not wanting to wake him up, Súdreth shifted only his head to look at his leg since he had forgotten to look earlier to see how it healed. He noticed it was tightly wrapped in some vines and covered in dried mud.

Thankful that Jeff was good with medical problems, Súdreth carefully used to his tail to draw a picture in the dirt whilst not hitting Jeff. He had been drawing it for a few hours when Jeff had woken up and abruptly said "You…you drew a picture of me in the dirt! How sweet of you Súdreth." Glad that he liked it, Súdreth nudged him with his nose. Súdreth noticed that Jeff was starting to smell very tasty, almost as if he was telling him to eat him. Súdreth had opened a mouth a little and was leaning towards Jeff to eat him before he realized that he can't eat his friend.

'I must be incredibly hungry in order for a thought like that to occur' Súdreth thought as his stomach rumbled. "Sounds like someone's hungry. I'll go find us some food, alright? You just stay put now," Jeff said as if he heard Súdreths stomach growl which wouldn't have been surprising as the growl was loud and Jeff was lying on his stomach. Glad that Jeff had gone to find them food, mostly because he wouldn't be tempted to eat him, Súdreth decided to explore the cave they were in. He slowly stood up, careful to not put a lot of pressure on his wounded leg and started to limp around. It wasn't a big cave, just tall enough for him to stand on his hind legs in and five times his size lengthwise.

'If we ever have to fight in here, it'll be hard for me to maneuver around,' Súdreth noted in his mind. After he wandered around the whole cave, Súdreth laid down in the middle again to help his leg relax and heal quicker as it was an important limb to have. A few minutes later, Jeff came back in with what appeared to be some very small fish and a dead bird. "Hey, sorry to keep you waiting but it was very hard to catch the fish with just a spear. Anyways, this bird I found dead on the ground but it appeared to have only been dead for a few minutes. You can have all the fish and the bird as I have something else for me to eat," Jeff said as he entered the cave.

Súdreth knew the reason Jeff didn't want to eat the fish or the bird is because he would get sick if he ate raw meat and it would take too long to cook it, or would it? Súdreth quickly realized he could cook the bird really fast and Jeff could eat that as well since all Jeff had to eat was apparently some berries he had found. He softly breathed enough fire to cook the bird well enough for Jeff to eat but not too much as to burn it. After he cooked it, Súdreth looked at Jeff who was looking back at him and motioned for him to have it. "Oh, uh thanks I guess," Jeff said after his shock went away.

Súdreth ate the fish slowly as to not get an upset stomach and watched Jeff as he slowly ate the bird and berries. He seemed to be having a hard time cutting the bird open so Súdreth went ahead and used the tip of his tail which had been sharp ever since he was born and cut the bird open for him. "Thanks, you've been very kind to me, I don't know how to repay you," Jeff replied to his action. 'You've already repaid me enough,' Súdreth thought as he smiled at Jeff who was eating away at the bird.

After they ate, Jeff told Súdreth about his life, about how the military had killed his family and he had wanted to get revenge ever since but known he could never do it on his own. It soon became nightfall when Jeff yawned and suggested they go to bed, which Súdreth agreed to. Súdreth curled up in the middle and he felt Jeff lay against him and they both fell asleep.

_Chapter 13_

Súdreth woke up and found Jeff still asleep, laying against him. Careful to not wake him up, Súdreth carefully used his tail to hold Jeff up and slowly lay him down against a soft rock as he slid out from under him. He went over to the other end of the cave, behind some rocks to relieve himself as he hadn't gone since he left his relatives. When he was wandering back, he heard some shouting over where Jeff was and hid behind the rock to try and find out who it was. "Well well, what do we have here? Looks like a lonely adventurer who has had a good life so far. Too bad he slept so long, right boys?" a very deep voice said as others laughed.

"You stay away! You don't know what kind of trouble you're getting yourselves into!" Jeff roared back at them. "Oh yah? How so? It's ten to one and we have you surrounded. Just put down your sword and let your death come quick and painless, or else it'll be slow and very, very painful," the deep voice said again. "Súdreth! Where are you!" he heard Jeff yell. "Súdreth? Who's that? One of your idiotic companions who'll die if he comes here?" the deep voice mocked. "Súdreth is a good friend who will kill you all if you don't back off," Jeff threatened.

"Two against Ten, it still won't give you a win. Even if he was a master swordsman, he will still be slain by us," a higher voice said. "Whoever said he was human?" Jeff asked. "Oh please, are you really trying to scare us with your puny lies, little peasant? Besides, if this 'Súdreth' really was a dragon he or she would have marked this cave as their territory and I don't smell any mark," the deep voiced man asked, mockingly. Súdreth peaked out of his cover to see Jeff was, indeed, surrounded by at least a dozen bandits who looked very eager to kill something.

"Now, give us all of your stuff or we will kill you and your friend," the lighter voiced man said. "Incase you haven't noticed, we don't have any stuff," Jeff replied. Súdreth watched silently as the deep voiced man ordered one of his men to search the place. After the man searched half of the cave, he went over to the other half where Súdreth was.

Súdreth saw him coming and hid behind the giant rock, ready to strike when the bandit came past him. He silently watched the bandit walk past him and decided to sneak up behind him instead. He lowered his head to the back of the bandits head and waited. "Do you see anything valuable?" the deep voiced man yelled, clearly mad at how long it was taking. "No sir, there's nothing here but rocks," the bandit in front of Súdreth yelled back.

Bored at how long he was taking as well, Súdreth breathed a little hot air on the bandit's neck. The bandit stood frozen, as if he had just seen a ghost. The bandit started to slowly turn around until he was face-to-face with Súdreth. Súdreth heard the bandit scream a shrill cry as he ate the man. "Hey! Don't mess around, you'll regret it!" the deep voice man yelled, sounding scared.

Súdreth, eager to keep the fear up, roared a blood thirsty roar, loud enough to scare even beings across the other side of the mountain. "Told you he'd be mad, and he ain't human," Jeff softly told the deep voiced man. Súdreth heard the men start to run towards the exit, but not wanting any of them to escape he used his wings to launch him to the only exit and blocked the pathway. The bandits screamed as they saw he truly was a great dragon and started to grab for their swords whilst backing up. Súdreth breathed some fire in the air in front of them all to get them scared even more than they already were.

As he smelled the air, he smelt the stench of urine. 'Aww, did they already piss themselves?' Súdreth thought as he chuckled. "Get back, you foul beast!" a new voice rang out from the crowd of bandits. Súdreth quickly looked at the man straight in the eyes, causing him to back off like the coward he was. Already bored, Súdreth jumped at the closest bandit eating him whole, alive and all.

He noticed one of the bandits running for the exit but Súdreth simply moved his tail in front of the bandit and pushed him backwards. "Sir, what is it doing?" a scared voice said. "It's toying with us. It knows it can't take us all at once, heck I bet it doesn't even know what we're saying," the deep voice man replied, clearly being their leader. Súdreth was about to turn and growl at the leader when Jeff said "Oh, I'm sorry to disrupt your parade, but he can understand you just fine." "What? No! That can't be! They aren't humans, they can't understand our language!" the leader hastily replied with horror.

Grinning, Súdreth lashed the bandit next to the leader with his tail since his claws were still growing back and left deep marks in his front. He watched as the bandit suddenly ran around in horror as he bled to death. Súdreth then looked at the leader who he wanted to suffer the most. He grinned as he watched the bandit realize he was Súdreths next target and started running away frantically. Not wanting to risk an escape, Súdreth used his tail to knock some boulders on top of the exit, big enough to block it but not too big as to where he can't lift them.

Knowing that they can't escape now, Súdreth jumped off his legs towards the same bandit and trapped him under his claws. "Oh, please don't kill me! I have a family! They will miss me if I don't return to them!" the useless coward said. 'If you had a family you wouldn't have joined or led these bandits,' Súdreth thought to himself, wishing he could tell the leader that. He made sure to crush the leading bandit with his claw before breaking its arm with his other claw. Súdreth turned his attention to the bandit who was frantically trying to stab him in his side.

He used his tail the swipe the bandit off his feet and put his left claw upside down under the bandit while the bandit was falling. Súdreth snarled as the bandit screamed in pain when Súdreths sharp claw went through him. "We're all going to die! It's hopeless! We might as well kill ourselves now to avoid his wrath!" a young bandit yelled as he took his sword to his neck. Wanting to stop them from making their death less painful, Súdreth flapped his wings once to make a fierce wind knock them down. He noticed that all but one remaining bandit had slit their throats before he managed to knock them over.

Turning on the last bandit, he jumped onto him, landing on him with his right claw since a bandit was still on his left claw. "Wait! Súdreth, can I handle this one?" he heard Jeff quickly ask. Still filled with rage, Súdreth landed a claw down next to the bandits head, leaving a deep mark in the soil. Reluctantly, he still got off the bandit to let Jeff deal with him. Once he walked over to where Jeff was and laid down, he felt and heard his stomach rumble.

Looking around at all the bodies on the ground, he got up and started to eat them all, one by one. After he ate all the ones he could see, he remembered the one on his claw. He lifted his claw into his mouth and pulled the human off with his teeth like a shish kabob. He looked back at Jeff to see what he was doing when he saw the bandit was already dead, having bled out from numerous stab wounds. "Hey Súdreth, thanks for helping me. I couldn't have taken them all on at once," Jeff said behind Súdreth.

Turning around, Súdreth could see Jeff had a sword wound on his arm. Jeff must have noticed him looking at it as he said, "It's alright, it already stopped bleeding." Thankful that he was alright in the end, he curled up on the floor and closed his eyes, wanting to rest incase anything else happened. He was about to fall asleep when he heard Jeffs stomach growl.

Jeff looked at Súdreth with a look that told tales of hunger. Súdreth looked around the cave to see if he forgot anyone when he remembered the human Jeff had killed. He walked over to it and looked back and Jeff, moving his head at the dead human. "Oh, uh I guess I could eat him…Just don't tell anyone about it, okay?" Jeff said, apparently startled as he took a few seconds to say it.

Glad that he'd eat the dead human, Súdreth breathed hot enough fire on it to cook it to where it was edible but not too much to where it was burnt. After he cooked it, Súdreth laid down on the floor, tired from the day's activities. Letting his eyes slowly close, Súdreth soon fell asleep to the sound of Jeff eating.

_Chapter 14_

Súdreth woke up in the middle of the night sweating in fear from the nightmare he had just had. He had dreamed about Jeff being tortured by the humans to tell the location of Súdreth. He had been tortured for a week and counting as they tried to get the location out of him. Not budging, Jeff had been selected as food for one of their 'projects'. Jeff had been led into a small, caged room where a small animal sat in the center. He had approached the animal when it lunged at him and bit his arm off.

That was where Súdreth had woken up at. Súdreth looked for Jeff just to see him lying against the wall, safe and sound. Hoping to rid himself of the nightmares, Súdreth quietly walked over to Jeff and laid down next to him, protectively. He tried to fall asleep again but couldn't as something was nudging at him in the corner of his mind, something important that he just couldn't remember.

As he tried to remember it, he heard something move outside. "Are you sure there's a cave in here?" a feminine voice asked. "Yes, I'm positive," a masculine voice replied. "Then hurry up, it's starting to get very cold out here," the female said again. A few seconds past until he heard a different male say "Better?" and the female reply "Yes, thank you Kzichom." 'Wait…are these…other dragons?' Súdreth thought to himself.

Afraid of what they might do if they found out he was friends with a human, Súdreth laid in front of Jeff to hide him from sight. 'Hope their smell isn't that good,' Súdreth pleaded in his mind. He looked around for a dark spot and found one relatively close. He picked up Jeff and carefully walked over to the darkest spot in the cave. "Hey, what are you doing?" Jeff said sleepily.

'I woke him up…darn it, that's not what I wanted,' Súdreth thought sadly. "Will you guys stop messing around and clear these rocks? Your hide might held protect you from the rain but I've got nothing but my clothes which don't help at all," a small voice said. 'Clothes? They must have a human with them as well! Wait, why did the humans we escaped stop following us anyways? It couldn't have been hard to follow us, unless…unless we past the border of the small fraction of the humans world!' Súdreth cheerfully thought. Glad that the other dragons won't be mad if he was friends with a human as they were as well, Súdreth relaxed a little but still hid in the corner. About a minute had past when he saw a dark form slip into the cave.

It looked around for a few moments before saying, "looks abandoned, come in and get out of the rain." The figure stepped in the light from the cave and revealed itself as a black, slender dragon. It was about 25 feet long and 13 feet high. From the sound of its voice he guessed it was a male. Súdreth silently watched as two more dragons came in, followed by a human. One dragon who appeared to be female was 17 feet long and 9 feet high. The other was a male about 19 feet long and 13 feet high. Their male human was about 5 and a half feet tall, a little skinny around the waist but a human nonetheless. Relaxed to see the human wasn't even hurt in any way, Súdreth realized the dragons must be very kind and not mean at all. 'Dangerous perhaps, but only if you make them angry by annoying or hurting them,' he thought to himself gleefully.

Still not wanting to risk it, he stayed there as quietly as possible in order to not be found. "Come on Drãkáñéñ, surely you aren't that dumb? There's clearly a dragon in here as these corpses are very fresh unless it flew out and collapsed the cave behind it but that would be very idiotic as why would you leave a perfectly good cave," the one apparently named Kzichom said. "The same reason we left ours maybe," Drãkáñéñ replied. "Our reason was a good reason!" stammered Kzichom rather upsettingly. "Whether or not there's another dragon in here, we can't stay in the rain or Alek will freeze to death. If the other dragon gets mad that we're in here then let 'em, as I doubt it will be dumb enough to fight all of us at once if it wanted to try to," said the female dragon, seeming to want them to stop fighting.

With a sigh, Drãkáñéñ said, "I guess your right, sorry Ackriá." 'Well I learned their names rather quickly' Súdreth happily thought to himself. "I don't think we have to worry as it smells as if there's a human in here with the other dragon if there is another dragon. So he'll probably be a nice dragon who will be fine with sharing," Kzichom said. That startled Súdreth as he forgot they'll be able to smell him and Jeff which meant they knew where he was. "Come on out already, we aren't going to hurt you," the one named Ackriá said.

Súdreth looked down at Jeff who seemed to be in shock as Súdreth realized the other dragons were speaking the human's language. Not thinking, Súdreth blurted out "You can speak their language?" which startled the others. "Oh, uh yes, I thought it was common here," Ackriá said. "Not here, no one on the other side of the border can speak their language and no one wants to. Over there if they find you you're most likely dead so why learn a language that will be useless for you to speak? If anything it'll make them want to do even more of their tests on you," Súdreth calmly replied at first, starting to get angry the further he went on. "So I'm guessing you just came over the border?" Kzichom asked. "Yes," Súdreth replied. "Looks like you had some fun when you got here," Drãkáñéñ said as he looked at all of the corpses.

"Well we uh…we were attacked by some bandits earlier and I sort of just got really mad and…well you can see what happened," Súdreth replied calmly as he had calmed down after talking about the border. "So where's your friend?" the human named Alek asked. Unable to respond to the human without having the others translate, Súdreth unwrapped his tail from around Jeff who was still shocked. "What? Humans on the other side don't know we can speak their language?" Kzichom asked. "Apparently not," Drãkáñéñ replied before Súdreth could.

Jeff all of a sudden blurted out a storm of words causing Alek to shout "How about you guys go talk to each other while I talk to him?" "Sounds good," Kzichom replied. Súdreth noticed Kzichom nod towards the other end of the cave, signaling he wanted him to follow him there. Nodding in agreement, Súdreth walked with the others to the other side in silence. After they reached the other end Súdreth said "Sorry about that, I guess he's just so shocked he can't stop asking questions."

"Its alright, I probably would have reacted the same way," Drãkáñéñ said, blushing a little. "You are going to have a lot of questions about where I'm from, don't you?" Súdreth asked. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions about us as well, don't you?" Ackriá said. "Yes actually, I do. Where you're from, do humans capture you and treat you like monsters?" Súdreth asked. "No, actually where we're from it's the humans who fear us. We're superior over them since they're so weak. How is it that your humans are superior over you?" Ackriá replied.

"Well our humans don't use strength to overpower us. Instead they use technology and traps to capture and bound us so we can't attack them. They also have this device where if you don't do what they tell you to, they activate it and it sends searing pain into wherever it's attached to you at," Súdreth said. "Sounds painful, no wonder you crossed the border. So tell me, is it true from the rumors that they use you until you die then they just toss you like everyday garbage? Do they not care about your health or how much pain you're in? Do they not care if their traps and technology hurts or kills the environment in which we live in?" Kzichom asked. "Yes, it's all a hundred percent true," Súdreth answered. "So if you don't mind me asking, how did you get captured and escape?" Drãkáñéñ asked.

"Well, I was flying home from visiting my relatives when a big bang in the air knocked me from the air, causing me to crash and get entangled in this fake jungle they made. I had blacked out and woken up in some cargo hold. There was a human who claimed to have saved me but nonetheless it was a test and I fell for it. They had some military to 'break' in and try to capture me, which caused me to break the roof open and fly out with the human who, after I landed, put one of their dart things that cause you to black out in me.

After I had awoken I was in what appeared to be an empty white room. I was there for a few minutes before a loud ear-piercing shriek which the humans appeared to be immune to as there was a few of them in the room doing something on a piece of wood, not affected by the noise at all. Then after the humans left, I had almost fallen asleep from boredom when a sharp pain from one of their devices hit me in the side, causing me to faint from the pain. I then woke up attached to some metal thing. I had to open my mouth while they put some substance on the top of my mouth which caused it to go incredibly dry and sting very badly.

While that substance was still on my mouth, my tail was then lowered into water that they said was two hundred degrees hot. They then switched the hot water with two hundred degrees below zero ice cold water. I was then put to sleep again. When I woke up again, I was in front of a blinding light that burned incredibly painfully. After a while the humans finally turned the light off and seemed to do something with that wooden board. They picked up a sharp metal object and seemed to want to cut my claws off. My claws were apparently too sharp for it so they stopped it. They soon left afterwards and I was released from that metal object and was instructed to go to a different spot in the room and lay on my back.

After I had done so since I didn't want the pain from that device again, a strong object bound me to the floor while another bound my mouth shut. A few humans came in shortly afterwards with a new device and started to cut me open. I had fainted after they started cutting me open and I woke up in what looked like a garbage disposal place. I overheard some humans saying it was sad that I had died during the test but that could have been a test in itself. Hoping it was not a test, I had wandered around looking for an exit. I soon found a narrow pathway that I could barley fit in but managed to anyhow.

I had made it out and was walking away when I felt a heavy object hit the side of my head, knocking me out. Later I woke up in another empty room thinking it was another test the whole time, but it turns out it wasn't. I had laid there for a little before a human came in who was very scared of me and approached without anything to defend himself with as if he completely trusted me. That human turned out to be my friend Jeff." said Súdreth as he nodded back towards the two humans.

"He said he found me unconscious in an alleyway and took me in. He helped some of my wounds heal and we escaped from where the human colony was. We had almost crossed the border when a human ambush attacked us and we almost didn't make it. I ended up having a badly busted leg from getting hit directly with their object that goes boom and hurts a lot while dazing you. Jeff used one of their knock out darts to put me to sleep so I wouldn't have to bear with the pain.

After that I woke up in this cave and you know the rest from there," Súdreth said as he looked back at his leg which was mostly healed but still looked torn all over. "Sounds like a horrible life to have over there…Well that doesn't matter now because you are here and not there. You won't need to run from humans anymore since they will always run from you instead. "But what if the other humans attack these humans? They could easily kill them all and capture all of the dragons over here," Súdreth said worryingly.

"If the humans over there wanted to take this land they would have a long time ago. We don't know why they don't or what's stopping them but we are thankful they don't," Ackriá said. "Yeah, I guess they already would have…anyways, how did you all meet? I mean, how you became friends and all," Súdreth said, wanting to change the subject. "Well, I met Alek under rather stormy weather and I sort of played a little game with him. Sorry that I had freaked him out so much, I invited him to stay in my home since it was pouring really badly and we bonded quickly after that," Drãkáñéñ said.

Ackriá quickly said "And I met them when I was looking for a new place to say. I had found a nice little cave and didn't see anyone in it so I fell asleep there. When I awoke I saw Drak here right in front of me which scared me badly. I didn't trust them at first but I soon did and I'm glad I did." Not to be outdone, Kzichom chimed in with "You wouldn't be glad right now if it wasn't for me!" which caused Ackriá and Drãkáñéñ to blush and say "does he need to know about that?"

"Of course he does! Now Ackriá and Drak had been trapped under a cave collapse whe-" Kzichom was saying before Ackriá interrupted with "It wasn't a cave collapse…it was my ex coming back to find me and probably kill me, and by probably I mean certainly." Kzichom, not wanting to be interrupted anymore, said "Anyways, I had heard Drak's plea of help and started digging in the rubble when I found Drak and unburied him, finding and unburying Ackriá in the process as well. We had talked with each other for a few minutes before Ackriá's ex came back to finish the job.

It took all three of us to fight him off but we managed to and we were all great friends after that." Súdreth thought for a little about what to ask when he asked "Hey, can you…well…teach me how to speak their language?" Kzichom and Drak seemed to get startled by that unexpected question but Ackriá, as if fully prepared to answer it said "Sure, it'll take a while but we can do it." Súdreth was about to thank her when a rumble from outside the cave startled all of them.

Remembering that Jeff was by the entrance, Súdreth ran towards him, the others following him closely. "YOU THINK YOU KILLED ME, DID YA? WELL THINK AGAIN YOU IDIOTS! NEXT TIME MAKE SURE TO GO DOWN AND FINISH THE JOB INSTEAD OF EXPECTING GRAVITY TO DO IT FOR YOU!" a very angry dragon yelled from outside. "No! It can't be! I thought we killed him!" Ackriá slowly said as she appeared to be scared to death. "Killed who?" Súdreth asked. "Remember the dragon we fought together earlier? Ackriá's ex? That's him," Drãkáñéñ replied.

Remembering that it took all three of them to bring him down and since it was a long time ago he was probably stronger than before; Súdreth ran over to Jeff and stood over him right before the rocks began to fall. "Alek!" Drak shouted before the cave collapsed between them. Knowing that Jeff would be safe under him, Súdreth looked for Alek who appeared to be trying to dig his way to Drak. "Alek, don't try to dig your way over there, you won't make it before you're crushed.

They'll be fine, they've survived his before, now get over here before you're crushed!" Jeff yelled at Alek. Alek seemed to get the message and started to run under Súdreth who had put his wings up and slid them under it with his tail while he gently lowered it to his side as it would serve more protection. He used his other wing to help protect his head while he hoped a giant rock didn't fall on him and break his wing.

_Chapter 15_

The collapse lasted a few minutes until he heard the noise stop and the weight of the rocks on top of him stopped getting heavier. 'Finally, the collapse stopped. Now I can relax a little while I think of a way to get out,' Súdreth thought to himself before quickly realizing 'Air! We need to air to survive and there's no airflow in here. We need to get out of here quickly.' Desperate for air, Súdreth frantically looked around for a weak spot in the rubble. He looked to his sides and upon seeing no weak spots, he followed the walls upward.

When he tried to move his wing out of the way, he felt rocks shift all above him and how much weight his wing was holding up. 'I can't hold all of these up forever,' Súdreth thought as he concerned himself with getting out quickly and to ignore the weight of the rocks. He heard a voice next to him say, "Súdreth, if you can breathe fire try hitting that big cluster of small rocks over to your right." Súdreth didn't recognize the voice so he figured it must of have been Alek saying that. Looking to his right, Súdreth noticed a small cluster which must have been what Alek was indicating.

Hoping for the best, he launched a fireball at the cluster and saw the rocks begin to crumble. "That's great! Just keep doing that and eventually it'll make a way out," Alek shouted. Súdreth continued shooting fireballs at the wall when he saw an opening at the other end. Enlightened by the fact that he saw an exit, he slowly and carefully started to walk towards it, letting rocks fall off of his wing behind him whilst keeping Alek and Jeff next to him under his other wing.

Once he got out of the small cave, he let Jeff and Alek out from under his wing so he could go back in and help save the others when the exit collapsed. Frightened at what might happen to them if he doesn't save his friends, Súdreth desperately digs at the fallen rocks. "What's wrong? Can't save your friends who are probably dead already? Aw, what a shame. Too bad you're too weak to do anything about it," the dragon who caused the cave to collapse mocked. Súdreth now stared at the dragon with hatred and revengeful feelings in his eyes. "What's wrong? Is poor little ole baby too weak to save his friends?" the dragon mocked again.

"Shut up," Súdreth stammered. "Make me," the dragon said. Now enraged, Súdreth jumped at the 30 foot long and 18 feet tall red dragon that was about twenty feet away and attempted to lash at him with his claws which had grown back at least a few feet, long enough to fight with. The other dragon jumped out of the way of Súdreths attack and lashed at him with his own claws and teeth. Súdreth felt the dragon bite him hard on his side but he was too angry to feel pain so he used his tail to stab the dragon's tail. After the dragon let go of him to try and stop his own bleeding, Súdreth turned and lunged at the other dragons head, biting it on the ear instead of the neck where he was aiming.

Súdreth felt the dragon swipe at his stomach in an attempt to get him off but he didn't budge even though he was in a lot of pain. The dragon finally knocked Súdreth off with a quick buck of its head and leaped at Súdreth's neck. Súdreth felt a claw touch his throat before he let go a fireball which seared the dragons face, causing it to fall and clutch its face in pain. Still not satisfied with the dragon's fate, Súdreth slowly brought one of his sharp claws along the dragon's stomach, slowly cutting it.

He was about to reach its neck when something knocked him off his feet. Devoured by anger, Súdreth blindly charged at whatever knocked him off his feet just to see it was the dragon's tail which it cleverly brought up. He used his left wing to launch himself to the right to avoid its tail and hit its head which must have surprised the dragon as it didn't counter his attack.

He hit it right in he eye which blinded it, and upon remembering it had fallen off of a very steep and high cliff and hadn't died, he slowly walked over to its head as it had backed up a few meters. Enjoying the amount of pain it was in, Súdreth sat there and watched it squeal like a little baby. However, he was unaware the dragon had brought some friends with him.

_Chapter 16_

Súdreth had just watched the dragon bleed out when he turned around and saw three more standing there in front of him. "Well look at that, boys! The idiot managed to get himself killed by this weakling! I think its time we taught him a lesson, don't you agree?" the middle one announced, clearly the leader. "Yes Hycritch, I believe we should," replied the two to his side. Súdreth braced for one of them to jump at him but instead they simply surrounded him and started to slowly walk at him. Confused at what they were doing, Súdreth turned his claw sideways and jumped forward with his hind legs while using his wings to give him some speed causing him to spin while he breathed fire outwards.

Once he did a couple 360° turns, he stopped and looked at the aftermath. He noticed the three did get some burns but had jumped behind some rocks to avoid most of the burn. "So you're a fire breather, huh? Knew we should have watched you fight him, this would have been so much easier if we did. Now you got any tricks up your sleeve or are done with your little magic tricks?" the leader named Hycritch said.

Grinning, Súdreth lunged at the young left dragon who appeared to be 14 feet long and 12 feet tall with his claws and teeth while he used his tail to strike at Hycritch so he couldn't help repel Súdreth's attack. When he hit the left dragon with his teeth, he could taste blood which meant the dragon's hide was weak. He bit even harder, trying to hurt the dragon as much as possible.

He was about to snap its neck when something bit him in his side, causing him to let go and bite at the other dragon who had bitten his side. He managed to bite the other dragon on its ear, which caused it to roar in pain and jump away while its friends charged Súdreth. Knowing he can't stop them both at once, Súdreth jumped off the ground and used his wings to propel him high in the sky. "Oh no you don't, you aren't getting away that easy!" Hycritch yelled at him as he jumped up and flew towards him. Súdreth blew a ball of fire at the older 24 feet long 14 feet tall dragon that dodged it easily.

"You're going to have to do better than that if you want to have a chance at hitting me!" Hycritch shouted. With his new knowledge that he can't hit Hycritch when he isn't occupied, Súdreth reversed direction and flew straight towards Hycritch, aiming to knock him out of the sky with his head. His surprise attack seemed to work as Hycritch went hurling down towards the ground with a dazed look on his face. Súdreth knew this might be his only chance to hit him with a fireball so he blew the best fireball he could at Hycritch.

An explosion of smoke happened as the fireball hit his target but as he the smoke cleared Súdreth saw the young dragon that he had bitten earlier had jumped in front of Hycritch and took the blow for him. Súdreth snarled as he realized Hycritch would never fall for the same trap twice which meant he'd need a new tactic. He got ready to fly straight at his foe lying on the ground still dazed when a weak fireball hit his side, startling him a little before he remembered the third dragon.

Turning to look at where it came from, he saw the small hatching who couldn't be longer than 10 feet and taller than 5. 'He's that young and he can already breathe fire? Wow, he must be a natural, which is all the more reason to deal with him quickly," Súdreth thought in his mind as he watched the young dragons every move. Since he had all of his attention on the young dragon he didn't notice Hycritch flying up below him until he felt the powerful impact of the dragon's head smacking him in his gut. Súdreth went flying towards the mountain, hitting the side hard and breaking his wing.

He slowly raised his head just in time to see the older dragon come flying after him increasingly fast and hit Súdreth's head with his claws. Now bleeding severely from his head, Súdreth could barley stay conscious and thought he was dead when he saw Hycritch lift up a claw and say "It's over," before he swung his claw down on top of Súdreth.

_Chapter 17_

A loud explosion startled Súdreth as he saw Hycritch go flying to his right and hit the mountain side, burnt to a crisp. He tried to turn his head to see what had happened when he felt an enormous amount of pain in his neck causing him to not try to turn his head. He heard someone running towards him and he just laid there defenseless thinking it was the end when he heard a familiar voice say "Súdreth, are you alright!?"

'I know that voice…' he thought to himself slowly. "Drãkáñéñ?" Súdreth quietly muttered as it gravely hurt to talk. "Don't worry, I'm here now. You're going to be fine, just rest and we'll take care of you, alright?" Drak asked. "A-Alright," Súdreth said as he winced at every word. He laid there for about a minute before he heard the others coming. 'There're alright…they all survived the collapse,' Súdreth happily thought to himself. "What happened?" Kzichom asked loudly.

"He fought the dragon that caused the cave to collapse and then right afterwards he had to fight three more. I didn't think he was going to survive a fight like that, but I'm just glad he did," Jeff replied. Súdreth soon felt something touch his broken wing causing him to use all of his strength to just wince at the pain instead of roaring very loudly. "Don't touch him. It looks like he has some broken limbs," Ackriá said after she noticed him wince at the touch. "What're we going to do now? We can't stay out here and we can't move him either," Alek said. "We can't move his wing," Ackriá corrected him.

"We can still move the rest of him though," she continued. "So where do we carry him to? Doesn't look like there are any other caves here, how about the other side of the mountain?" Alek asked. When he heard the suggestion to go the other side of the mountains where he just came from, Súdreth whined hoping to tell them no. "Oh, don't go across the mountains unless you want to…we'll not live very long," Jeff quickly said after Súdreth whined at the mention of it.

"What? Why won't we live very long?" Alek asked. "Oh, I forgot to tell you about it…well now's not the time to tell, now's the time to find some shelter as a storm is approaching fast," Jeff said obviously wanting to change the subject. "Wait, up there in between those mountains down the ridge. See that small hole? I think that's a cave," Kzichom said. "I see it too, but it's too far away, we won't make it in time," Ackriá said. "You got a better idea?" Kzichom asked as they started growling at each other.

"Hey, now's not the time for little fights. We need to find something and fast. If we don't then someone will have to be the cover," Alek yelled. "It'd take two of us to cover Súdreth, and even then rain might drown him," Ackriá shouted to be heard over the storm that just arrived. "Then what do we do? There's no chance of finding shelter in this storm and we can't cover him ourselves as Ackriá pointed out," Jeff yelled.

Weakly, Súdreth mumbled "On the mountain to the north is a small cave. It's large enough to allow two dragons in. Next to it is an even smaller cave, too small for a dragon but large enough for a human." He had been trying to remember what he saw when he fighting the other dragons when he remembered those caves. "Come on, we heard him, lets get to those caves," Kzichom shouted. "Only you three could understand him though, so lead the way!" Alek shouted at them.

Súdreth felt him being carefully lifted up and carried around the mountain. He felt relieved to find himself out of the harsh weather and inside that dry, warm cave. "Now who's going to stay in there with him? Only two dragons can fit and he's one so who's the other?" Kzichom asked. "I'll stay with him since I'm the one with the most medical experience," Ackriá loudly said.

"Seems reasonable, we'll shelter as close to the entrance we can so don't worry about us," Kzichom shouted. Súdreth listened as he heard them walk off to find shelter and Ackriá walk towards him and lay down next to him. "So, are you feeling alright?" Ackriá asked. "I'm fine now, thanks for asking," Súdreth quietly said.

"Good, now you can go ahead and sleep, you need more rest than I do," Ackriá softly said as if trying to make it easier for him to fall asleep. Glad that she wants him to sleep so he doesn't have to risk her feeling offended if he fell asleep while she was talking, Súdreth closed his eyes and fell asleep quite easily.

When Súdreth woke up, he saw Ackriá at the entrance, looking out into the horizon. He slowly got up and stood there until he felt like he could walk and then started to walk towards her. When he reached her, he heard her say "You sure don't take long to rest." "Surely I wasn't that bad, was I?" Súdreth said curiously. "If you count your wing being broken, being barley able to speak, being sore all over, and barley conscious as not bad, then it wasn't that bad. "Oh…" Súdreth said sadly as he remembered the night before. "While you were asleep I fixed your wing as much as I could. The rest of its healing with take time, so no using it for quite a while," Ackriá said, seemingly hoping to brighten his spirits a little.

"Well, at least my wing will be useable sometime in the future I guess," Súdreth said sadly as he looked at his wing. He was about to ask another question when he smelt something good and heard Kzichom say "Who's hungry?" "When did you get here?" Ackriá asked. "About five seconds ago, why?" Kzichom asked back. "Oh, nothing," Ackriá teased. Súdreth ignored whatever they said after that as his sight landed on the cooked birds on the grass outside the cave in front of Kzichom.

As if noticing his glance, Kzichom said "Caught 'em a few minutes ago. Had Drak cook 'em a little for you, hope you like it." Eager to eat as he couldn't remember the last time he ate was, Súdreth walked as fast as he could with his still aching legs and started to chow down. "Don't worry, there's plenty more! We found a whole nest of 'em and snagged as many as we could before they all flew off," Kzichom said as he laughed at Súdreths eagerness.

After Súdreth finished his meal, he asked "Where's the others?" and Kzichom answered with "Oh, Jeff and Alek are in their cave still asleep and Drak went back to sleep after he cooked these for us." "How kind of him," Súdreth said. "Yes, it was very kind of him considering he got almost no sleep last night and volunteered to help find food. He really does more than he should," Kzichom said. Súdreth and Ackriá continued working on Súdreth's ability to speak the human's language while they waited. "Wow, you're a fast learner," Ackriá said after they were done. "My parents always told me I learned quickly," Súdreth replied.

"You already know their whole language; it didn't even take us a week to teach you it," Ackriá said. They were interrupted during a story of Kzichom's past by Drak asking "So did you save any for me?" After Súdreth recovered from his spook he apologetically said "Oh uh, sorry, I sort of ate it all." He watched Drak sigh and say "It's alright; I'm not that hungry right now anyways. So how long did I sleep for?" "About four hours," Ackriá said. "Are the others up yet?" Drak asked Ackriá.

Before Ackriá could answer, Alek said "We're up," from behind him. Súdreth watched quietly as his friends discussed recent events. "So you fought him on your own?" Ackriá suddenly asked Súdreth. "Him?" Súdreth asked confused. "The one who collapsed the cave," Ackriá responded. "Oh him, yes I did fight him on my own. He wasn't that strong, maybe he was weakened from the fall when you fought him?" Súdreth said, hoping to try and make them not feel weak.

"Doubt it, he wouldn't still be wounded by that since that was a few years ago," Ackriá said. "Then something else must have been hindering him from fighting as well as he actually could of," Súdreth suggested. "Just admit it; you're trying to not make us feel weak when we already knew you're the strongest one here. Just admit it and stop making us feel worse," Kzichom said.

With a sigh, Súdreth said "Alright, I admit I was trying to make you not feel so weak and I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings by doing that but please don't feel bad about yourselves. You're all meant for a specific purpose; Ackriá, you're good at medical stuff, something I am horrible at, and Kzichom, you're a very smart guy, so what if you're not that strong? You're still very smart and you know the saying brains over bronze. Drak, you're swift and bled into the darkness easily. You are clearly meant to be stealthy, not charge in the middle of the fight like me. You're not meant to take the force of the punch but to give it, while I'm meant to take the hit for you and not give it."

He waited for a few seconds for one of them to react when Alek said, "Súdreth's right, you aren't all supposed to be tough impossible-to-kill dragons. Ackriá, without you who knows where we'd be right now! You've stopped so many childish fights and healed so many wounded I've lost count. Kzichom, without you we might not be here right now. We could be lost in the middle of a wasteland because we just headed a direction instead of using the stars to navigate.

Without you, we'd get lost in storms all the time but you stop us from getting lost because you know when storms are coming and where to hide from it at. Drak, you've always been there for us to make sure nothing is hiding in the caves we sleep in. You cook foods for us so we don't need to wait a few hours. You have helped us defeat many foes that otherwise would have proven impossible by attacking from behind or above where they least expect it.

You often go ahead on your own behalf and put yourself in danger to make sure there's no ambush waiting for us. If you were all very good in combat then you would get lost all the time or if one of you got a minor injury on your leg you might lose your leg instead of being able to save it by eating a few berries or leaves or something like that. You would be outsmarted and taken down easily in every battle and would fall into every ambush. You're all perfect the way you are so stop trying to be someone who you aren't."

Súdreth noticed Drak give a small sigh as he said "You're right, now how about we talk about the biggest subject at hand, shall we?" Knowing what he meant, Súdreth said "Alright, we all know we can't stay here. We need to find a good place to live in that's not too small or too big." "Or too loud" Ackriá chirped in. "Right, that too." Drak finished. "Well I'm tired of waiting here so how about we go and look?" Kzichom said.

"Well where to? We can't go east and we just came from the west so the only possible directions are north and south," Ackriá said. "I hear there are a lot of dragons in the north because of the warm weather and not very many in the south because of the cold weather. So here's your choice, either go live with a lot of other dragons who possibly kill over the slightest thing and they would have to hide" Drak said as he nodded at Jeff and Alek.

Continuing, he said "And if we go south then we won't have to hide a lot but it will be very cold and possibly snowing every day." Upset at both choices, Súdreth suggested "How about we go halfway north? Like go between the north and where we are now? Not too cold and not too warm plus there won't be a bunch of dragons living around there if you're right." "We could do that but how far is half way?" Drak replied.

"Go forty-eight miles north and two miles west," Alek said out of nowhere. "Do you know of a spot there?" Drak asked. "Yes, I remember seeing it on a map along time ago. I may not be exactly correct as I'm trying to picture it in my mind but there was a good sized cave there, about big enough to fit all of us with plenty of room to move about in," Alek replied.

"Then we'll head there," Drak said. "Alright then, let's go already," Kzichom said. Lowering his wing so Jeff could get on, Súdreth watched as the rest of his friends get ready to go north and find the cave. He noticed Kzichom jump off the ground into the air and start flying first then Drak behind him, Alek riding on his back and Ackriá last. Súdreth followed after her as he was unsure where to be so he hoped the back would be best incase they got attacked from behind.

_Chapter 18_

Súdreth and his friends had been flying until nightfall when he noticed Kzichom slow down quickly causing the rest of them to slow down as well. They all went down to the ground and Drak asked "What's wrong?" "The North Star should be up over there but it's not which means something is blocking it. Most likely very dense clouds but we must be very careful or we might get ourselves into a lot of danger.

"Alright, you want me to go ahead and see what it is?" Drak asked. "No, everyone needs to stay together. If one of us ventures off alone then all of us might be discovered. It's too risky for any of us to go ahead, even you Drak." Kzichom replied quietly. They all slowly and quietly walked the way towards the place Alek had told them about. Súdreth was finding the quietness unnerving but he knew it must be quiet or someone could get hurt. Súdreth was walking quietly along with the others when he heard some talking coming from ahead of them.

"Do you hear someone talking?" Súdreth whispered. He watched Kzichom stop and listen before saying "Yes, there is someone up there. Drak, will you go scout ahead?" "Sure, I'll be glad to." Drak responded as he quickly ran ahead in the darkness. They continued walking through the narrow valley when they saw Drak come running back saying "There's 25 humans standing around a small chained up dragon chanting 'Dragons, Dragons oh their meat is so good! Their meat is so good! What would we do without our dragon meat, we do not know!'

To me it sounds like they're going to eat him or her, I didn't have to time check the gender. Most of them are adults with some children next to them. Their weapons are nothing but small spears, however if they managed to catch a dragon, no matter how young, they must have a trick up their sleeves." Súdreth gulped as he thought it must be what the humans had back where he came from.

"Let's just hope it's not what I think it is or someone is going to be on a lot of pain," Súdreth said. "Well we can't just let them eat that poor dragon," Ackriá stammered. Sighing, Kzichom said "I know you're not going to be persuaded otherwise so we will go ahead and save the dragon. Now, someone will have to distract them while we secure our fellow kin, then we can have some fun, alright? Even though I like some humans, when they are planning to kill a dragon it's their worst mistake."

Súdreth was about to suggest just scaring them off when Ackriá said "If they captured a dragon then either they don't get scared easy or they were certain they could capture it with their number superiority. Now let's assume that they were certain they could capture it with their numbers, so we need the smallest one of us, who would be me, to distract them."

"I would say it's a dangerous task but now that we got Súdreth with us he can stay behind you a little ways and help you if you get attacked while I and Drak secure the dragon. Sound like a good plan?" Súdreth said. "What should we do?" Alek asked. "You can…uhh...help calm the dragon down after we save it I guess," Kzichom said. "Well, sounds like the only thing we could really do," Jeff said. "Actually, they could ask the other humans to release the dragon while we hide behind them and help if needed," Ackriá said.

"So you're saying Drak and I should go around them and wait to rescue the dragon if you can't persuade them while Súdreth and you hide and wait behind them?" Kzichom asked Ackriá. "Yes, that's exactly what I have in mind," Ackriá replied. "Alright then, guess that's our plan. Everyone, get into position," Kzichom said. Súdreth walked with Ackriá as they followed Alek and Jeff towards the human's camp.

He and Ackriá hid behind a rock that was big enough to conceal them and far away enough so the bad humans wouldn't see them yet close enough to help Jeff and Alek if needed. He listened intently as he heard the two approach the other humans and start talking with them. He heard a calm conversation between the two groups at first but anger started to arise when they mentioned releasing the dragon. "Why should we?" he heard an angry man say. "Because what you're doing is wrong! You people are the reason humans and dragons are fighting! If you didn't eat each other like this then maybe we could actually get along with them! They're actually quite nice if you get to know them," Alek yelled.

"Oh yeah, and how do you know that? Are you friends with one of those monsters?" another man yelled back. "So what if we are? That just means they aren't vicious beats like you say they are," Jeff said loud enough for them to hear him but not too loud as to where he was yelling. "Or if it means you're just as vicious as they are!" a child yelled. "Do we look vicious to you? Are we the ones about to cook a living being alive?" Jeff yelled back. A moment of silence passed until an angry man yelled "Don't you come over here and start trying to brainwash us like that! We'll show you just how wrong you are!"

"And how are you going to do that? Are you going to try and kill us?" Alek asked. "No, we're going to go over to that dragon we captured and show you just how vicious they are," the man said. Súdreth wanted to see what was going on too badly to resist it so he poked his head over the top of boulder just enough to see but not so much as to where you can easily see him. He saw the man walk over to the captured dragon and stick his hand towards its mouth. The dragon didn't try to bite him, it just laid there. "Does that look vicious to you?" Alek asked.

"It's faking it! It's trying to make itself look nice when it's truly evil!" the man yelled back. "Come on! Try and bite me!" the man taunted the dragon. "Sounds like you _want_ it to bite you to me. You sure you're not the vicious ones?" Jeff asked. Súdreth watched as the man filled with rage and punched the poor dragon as hard as he could right in its mouth, causing it to bleed a little. He could see the dragon fight back the urge to try and attack the man. 'They must have talked to it' Súdreth thankfully thought to himself.

"I will NOT be made a fool of!" the man yelled as he started charging at Alek and Jeff with his bare fists. "Are you that stupid?" Alek asked as he flashed his sword. The showing of Alek's sword stopped the man in his tracks. "So I see you aren't stupid enough to approach us without arms. No matter as we have plenty of our own and more than enough people to kill you," the man yelled, pointing to all of the other men and the weapons they were holding. "You think we're stupid enough to come here alone?" Alek yelled.

"So you brought a few more friends? Still won't be a match for us!" the man yelled as he charged with the other humans to kill Alek and Jeff who signaled for Súdreth and Ackriá to come help. Stepping out from behind the rock, Súdreth roared at all the other humans causing them to stop in their tracks and turn around to start running.

He watched as Ackriá jumped behind them all and trapped them between her and Súdreth. "So you resort to the beasts to help you win your fights?" the man yelled. "Whoever said we wanted to fight?" Jeff asked. "We just asked you to release your captive who we already have, now if you would be so kind as to excuse us we would like to be on our way again," he continued. Súdreth looked towards where the dragon was and saw his friends have already secured it. When he looked back at the group, he could see the fear in their eyes as the leader fearfully tried to talk with courage. "What are you trying to prove? That they're no more vicious than we are? Because that is a big lie!" the man tried to say with courage.

"If they were as vicious as you are then you wouldn't be alive right now. They aren't mindless beasts whose only mission in life is to kill. They do have feelings and are more intelligent than you are. If anything you're the people whose only mission in life is to survive, even if it means harming others," Jeff calmly said. Súdreth nudged Jeff a little to tell him that he was getting really bored. "Now please don't go around killing innocent people or you just prove my point," Jeff said as he started walking around the other humans, Súdreth and Alek following closely behind him.

Súdreth carefully observed the group as he followed Alek as he wanted to know what other humans were like. Were they all wicked? Were they all hostile? Did he find the only two humans who weren't wicked and evil? He didn't know but badly wanted to find out. As he reached the other side of the small circle of humans, he relaxed as he walked away from them, Alek in front.

They came around a corner and were greeted by Kzichom who said "Great job! We managed to save our friend here without any blood shed as well as prove a point." Súdreth was about to speak when Alek said, "It was nothing, besides I always wanted to yell at someone besides you for doing something wrong." This caused everyone to chuckle a little as it was true. "So who's our friend here?" Súdreth finally asked.

"He hasn't given us his name yet, but we know he's a boy because of his scent. It doesn't look like he's been harmed badly but he is still only a hatchling so he hasn't fully grown yet," Kzichom replied. Taking the time at hand, Súdreth got a good look at the young dragon before saying, "looks a lot like you Drak." Súdreth noticed Drak blush a little when he said that as Drak must have realized it was true.

The young dragon had a black, slender hide with a blood stain on his mouth from being hit earlier. He was about ten feet long and six feet high with dull, short claws. His face was hidden in his leg as he tried to hide his embarrassment. "It's alright little guy, we just want to help you," Ackriá softly said. "And why should I trust you?" the dragon replied. "If we wanted to kill you we would of just left you to them," Kzichom replied, obviously bored.

"Oh, I guess you're right..." the dragon said sadly. "Hey, brighten up! At least you're not being cooked alive right now like you would have been if we didn't help you," Súdreth said. "He's right and besides we shouldn't linger here any longer than we have to. We might already be unknowingly surrounded by dozens of other beings without realizing it," Ackriá said. With a sigh, Kzichom said, "Alright lets continue heading north until we reach midway." "Wait, what about me?" the dragon asked.

"Oh sorry, we almost forgot about you. You have a choice here, you can either come with us or have us cut you lose and you go on your own. You pick." Kzichom said. "I-I'll go on my own, try to find my parents again," the dragon said. "Alright, good luck to you," Kzichom said as he cut the dragon lose. They watched the dragon fly off into the distance before flying northward once again to continue their journey.

_Chapter 19_

As they reached their destination they turned to go east only to be blocked by two large dragons. "Where do you think you're going? This is the land of the almighty dragon lord Ksafock! You may have ventured through here without being caught so far but now you will be captured and taken to his majesty to be given a sentence for trespassing in his lands," the one on the left said.

"Sorry if we happened to trespass on your so-called royal majesties land but we'll be leaving now so if you'll be so kind as to get out of the way we'll be grateful," Kzichom said. "And what makes you think you can make us move?" the one on the right said. "We don't want to make you move but we will if we must. All we want is to get past to get to a safer area than your lords land," Ackriá persuasively said.

"Then you can go find safer lands AFTER you visit our lord in chains!" the one on the left shouted. Súdreth, knowing they would have to fight, looked around for more guards and found a few more hiding about. "Hey Drak, there's a few more guards lurking about, if we have to fight and you know we will, can you take them out?" Súdreth whispered to Drak.

He watched Drak look around and whisper back, "Yes, I think I can take them on. They don't look that strong. How about you? Will you fight these two?" Súdreth thought for a few seconds before saying, "I will help wherever I am needed. Kzichom and Ackriá should be able to handle these two just fine and you should be able to handle the others perfectly fine as well."

After nodding in agreement with Drak, he turned his attention back to the two guards as to not arouse any suspicion. He watched one of the guards sniff the air and say, "Smells like human in the air, are you four hiding some humans with you?" Súdreth heard Jeff hold his breath as Kzichom said, "We passed through several human camps just a few minutes ago, of course we're going to have their nasty stench on us right now."

Súdreth was very thankful that they had been smart enough to talk about what to do if a very strong dragon stops them. They had decided that Drak and Súdreth would use as little of their wing as possible to hide Alek and Jeff while not looking as if they were hiding something. "Why are you two trying to hide something?" the right guard asked.

"What are you talking about? We're not hiding anything." Drak said. "Then move your wing and show us," the right one said again. Ready to enter an inevitable fight, Súdreth backed up a little as Kzichom jumped at the left guard while Ackriá attacked the one on the right. "Couldn't make this easy, could yah? You just had to ask about that," Kzichom said. "It's our job to stop dragons like you now stop trying to fight an impossible battle and surrender," the one on the left replied while it tried to bite Kzichom's neck. Súdreth looked behind him as he saw twice the amount of dragons come out from behind the cliffs than there were before and he knew it was going to be a very tough and painful battle.

He signaled for Drak to strike first and he followed him as Drak ran along the side of the cliff and jumped at the closest dragon on the ground. Súdreth attacked the ones around him, clawing and scratching their tough hides. 'These guys are tough! They can't be normal dragons,' Súdreth thought to himself as he fought the three attacking him. He blew a fireball at one of them and bit the others neck while it was in shock from its friend being burned alive. He felt the third one bite his tail as he turned around and lunged at it, just to be knocked down by a different dragon.

He felt the dragon tear a sharp claw through his stomach area as he desperately tried to push it off. He managed to get the dragon off by burning its side with a small fireball only to look down and see him bleeding heavily from his only recently healed but now cut hide. Not wanting to waste anymore time as he could fall unconscious from the blood loss at any second he looked back at Kzichom and Ackriá to see them taking heavy hits while barley dodging the worst.

He felt another dragon bite his neck with dull teeth as it tried to kill him but he slashed a claw across its neck, slitting its throat. He looked towards Drak who was being chased by about eight different dragons as he desperately tried to pick them off one-by-one. He then wondered where Alek and Jeff were as he realized they weren't with them anymore. He looked around quickly until he found them hiding in a small cave.

Knowing they would be safe for a while and thinking Drak could hold out for a little longer, he ran at the two larger dragons that were busy fighting Kzichom and Ackriá. He jumped at the one on the right, taking it by surprise as he bit its neck with his razor sharp teeth. He felt a sharp object go through his wing as the dragon stabbed him with his spear-like tail.

He could feel his world starting to fade away as he lost too much blood but he knew he must continue fighting. He heard Kzichom say, "We can't win this battle, we must escape soon." "Ha! Good luck escaping when you can't even walk straight!" the other guard said as he fought Ackriá. He broke the guard's neck and turned to jump at the other one when he felt his own neck get turned sharply. "Where do you think you're going?" he heard a voice boom from above him.

He felt his neck starting to bleed as the dragons sharp teeth dug into him and he frantically started clawing at the dragon as it slowly turned his neck. The world soon became very fuzzy as he began to fall asleep from the blood loss but not before he felt the dragon let go of him and heard hundred of dragons start to run. He could hear a loud roar as a claw landed right in front of his face.


End file.
